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TO   PLOW  IS  TO   PRAY 

TO   PLANT  IS  TO  PROPHESY 

AND  THE   HARVEST 

ANSWERS  AND   FULFILS 


EDITED  AND 
ARRANGED   BY 

VERE   GOLDTHWAITE 


.'.■..liiiiniiiHlimiMi 


. 


PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY 
SAN    FRANCISCO    fcf   NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
Paul  Elder  and  Company 


Acknowledgment 

Permission  to  publish  this  took 
has  been  obtained  from  Mr. 
C.  P.  Farrell,  of  New  York, 
Publisher  of  the  Dresden  Edi- 
tion of  Col.  Inger  soil's  Com- 
plete Works.  Copyright,  I  goo. 


First  Edition,  1906 
Second  Edition,  1913 


TO 
THE  MEMORY  OF  MY  MOTHER 
LOMA  ARMOUR-GOLDTHWAITE 


402072 

LIBRARY 


PREFACE 

Probably  no  man  or  woman  of  history 
has  been  so  universally  misjudged  as  Robert 
G.  IngersolL  Those  who  did  not  know  him 
personally, —  and  they  were  of  course  the 
greater  number, —  believed  him  a  mere,  men- 
tal gladiator,  rudely  disturbing  the  founda- 
tions of  established  faith,  and  giving  nothing 
better  in  return.  Many,  who  never  heard 
him  speak,  or  read  a  word  of  his,  thought 
him  incapable  of  giving  to  the  world  any 
system  of  constructive  philosophy — some  even 
going  so  far  as  to  question  his  sincerity. 

This  book  is  published  to  dispel  in  some 
measure  that  belief,  and  is  submitted  to  the 
public  with  the  single  hope  that  it  may  be 
read  without  prejudice  and  criticized  with- 
out fear. 

I  acknowledge  with  gratitude  much  per- 
sonal kindness  received  from  Mr.  C.  P. 
Farrell  and  the  members  of  Col.  IngersolPs 

family. 

Vere  Goldthwaite. 

Boston,  Mass.,  January  i,  1906. 


BIOGRAPHICAL    MEMOIR 

Robert  Green  Ingersoll  was  born  in  Dresden,  County  of 
Tates,  New  York,  on  the  nth  day  of  August  in  the  year 
i8jj,  and  died  at  "  Walston"  Dobb's  Ferry-on-Hudson, 
July  21,  1899. 

He  was  a  teacher,  a  lawyer,  a  soldier,  a  statesman,  a 
diplomat,  an  author,  a  lecturer  and  an  honest  man.  He  was 
an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  Congress  in  i860 ;  organized 
the  nth  Illinois  Cavalry  in  1862,  and  went  to  war  as  its 
first  Colonel;  was  Attorney-General  of  Illinois  in  1866, 
and  declined  the  post  of  Minister  (now  Ambassador)  to 
Germany  in  1877.  During  several  presidential  campaigns 
he  was  prominently  connected  with  politics,  and  in  1876 
startled  the  world  with  his  brilliant  eulogy  of  James  G. 
Blaine,  in  a  speech  delivered  before  the  Cincinnati  Conven- 
tion of  that  year  which  nominated  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  for 
President  of  the  United  States.  This  speech,  says  Mr.  Justice 
Brewer,  in  his  "Library  of  the  World's  Best  Orations," 
was  probably  the  most  celebrated  speech  ever  made  in  an 
American  convention. 

About  the  early  life  of  Ingersoll  little  that  could  be  called 
authentic  was  ever  published  up  to  as  late  as  the  year  1888, 
for  in  that  year  Col.  Ingersoll  himself  said :  "I  have  never 
given  to  any  one  a  sketch  of  my  life.  According  to  my  idea,  a 
life  should  not  be  written  until  it  has  been  lived."  (Vol. 
XII,  p.  358,  Dresden  Edition.)  This  memoir,  however,  is 
published  with  the  approval  of  the  late  Colonel 's  family  and 
can  therefore  be  considered  reliable. 

Ingersoll 's  father  was  a  Congregational  clergyman,  but  it 
is  not  true  that  there  was  ever  any  coldness  existing  between 
him  and  his  gifted  son  because  of  their  respective  theological 
or  anti-theological  views.  On  the  contrary,  their  relations 
were  of  the  kindest  and  most  confidential  character,  and  the 
father  died  in  the  Colonel's  arms,  won  over  to  many  of  his 
gifted  sons  most  radical  beliefs. 

It  is  also  a  mistake  to  suppose,  as  many  people  do,  that 
Ingersoll  ever  denied  the  existence  of  a  God.    On  that  subject 
he  neither  denied  nor  affirmed,  he  simply  said,  "  i" 
do  not  know."    Recent  publications,  however,  still 


Vll 


continue  to  assert  that  "  Col.  Ingersoll's  notoriety 
has  been  made  by  his  public  lectures  denying  the 
existence  of  a  God."  (Universal  Enc,  Vol.  6,  p.  252.)  This 
is  not  true.  What  he  did  deny  was  the  existence  of  such  a 
God  as  the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews.  On  this  subject  he  has 
written  the  following :  "Let  me  say  once  for  all,  that  when 
I  speak  of  God,  I  mean  the  being  described  by  Moses :  the 
Jehovah  of  the  Jews.  There  may  be  for  aught  I  know,  some- 
where in  the  unknown  shoreless  vast,  some  Being  whose 
dreams  are  constellations  and  within  whose  thought  the  infi- 
nite exists.  About  this  being,  if  such  an  one  exists,  I  have 
nothing  to  say."    (Dresden  Edition,  Vol.  II,  p.  136.) 

These  misstatements  should  therefore  cease,  now  that 
Ingersoll  is  dead,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  should  be  known 
or  written.  While  he  lived  he  was  assailed  by  the  combined 
intellects  of  the  world,  but  he  stood  against  their  assaults  like 
a  demonstrated  truth  against  the  blind,  unreasoning  super- 
stitions of  the  past,  and  now  that  he  is  dead,  the  world 
can  well  afford  to  approach  and  read  the  eternal  message  he 
has  left. 

He  was,  without  doubt,  the  greatest  orator  of  the  western 
hemisphere.  His  originality  of  thought  and  expression  has 
not  been  excelled  by  any  man  of  his  race  or  times.  He  has 
left  to  us  some  of  the  best  thought  of  the  world.  He  was 
himself  his  only  ancestor  and  he  will  be  his  only  descendant. 
His  work  is  done  and  for  all  time ;  he  has  gone,  and  for- 
ever;  but  his  memory  lives  —  his  words  remain.  The  seeds 
of  subtle  thought  and  constructive  philosophy  which  he  scat- 
tered with  such  a  lavish  hand  have  taken  root  in  the  heart 
and  brain  of  the  present  generation,  and  will  bear  their 
ripened  and  abundant  fruit  when  that  generation  has  passed 
away. 

In  his  published  works  (I  mean  now,  his  authorized  works) 
there  will  be  found  nothing  against  justice ;  not  a  word 
against  truth ;  nothing  against  love,  against  kindness,  pity,  or 
affection.  If  this  could  be  said  of  all  the  literature  of  man- 
kind, we  would  have  what  the  world  has  never  possessed — 
"  A  generation   of  absolutely  free  men  and  free  women." 

Vere  Goldthwaite. 

Boston,  Mass.,  "January  7,  ipo6. 


vin 


CONTENTS 


Preface 

Biographical  Memoir 

Ingersoll's  Creed 

Fragments 

Life        - 

Cause  and  Effect 

Nature 

Man  and  Woman 

Marriage 

Love  - 

Home     - 

Children 

Education 

Intelligence 

Truth 

Justice        - 

Prejudice 

Liberty     - 

Worship 

Labor  - 

Science 

Art  - 

Crime    - 

War 

Spiritualism 

Optimism 

Immortality 

Tributes 

Index 


107 
JI3 


Page 
V 

•  • 

Vll 

xi 

1 

24 
29 

32 
36 

43 
48 

5i 

54 

58 

63 

65 

67 
69 

70 

76 

77 
81 

86 

93 

97 
102 

103 

105 


IX 


r 


A 


\s 


yustice  is  the  only  worship. 

Love  is  the  only  priest. 

Ignorance  is  the  only  slavery. 

Happiness  is  the  only  good. 

The  time  to  be  happy  is  now. 

The  place  to  be  happy  is  here. 

The  way  to  be  happy  is  to  make 
other  people  so. 


XI 


FRAGMENTS 

I  believe  in  the  medicine  of  mirth,  and  in 
what  I  might  call  the  longevity  of  laughter. 
Every  man  who  has  caused  real,  true,  honest 
mirth,  has  been  a  benefactor  of  the  human  race. 

0  laughter,  rose-lipped  daughter  of  Joy, 
there  are  dimples  enough  in  thy  cheeks  to  catch 
and  hold  and  glorify  all  the  tears  of  grief ! 

Vice  lives  either  before  Love  is  born,  or  after 
Love  is  dead. 

Hope  is  the  only  bee  that  makes  honey  with- 
out flowers. 

1  shall  never  attack  anything  that  I  believe 
to  be  good !  I  shall  never  fear  to  attack  anything 
I  honestly  believe  to  be  wrong! 

It  is  not  enough  to  say  fine  things;  great 
things,  dramatic  things,  must  be  done. 

We  are  standing  on  the  shore  of  an  infinite 
ocean  whose  countless  waves,  freighted  with 
blessings,  are  welcoming  our  adventurous  feet. 
Progress  has  been  written  on  every  soul.  The 
human  race  is  advancing. 

Kindness  is  strength.  Good  nature  is  often 
mistaken  for  virtue,  and  good  health  sometimes 
passes  for  genius.  Anger  blows  out  the  lamp  of 
the  mind.    Candor  is  the  courage  of  the  soul. 


Robinson- 
Crane  Dinner. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  IVoman 
and  Child. 


Fragments. 


Fragments. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 
Saved?       ^ 


On 

Shakespeare. 


Progress. 


The  Christian 
Religion. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln, 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


A  Lay  Sermon. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Brooklyn 
Speech. 


The  Davis 
Will  Case. 


About 

Farming  in 

Illinois. 


Centennial 
Oration. 


It  is  better  for  Americans  to  purchase  from 
Americans,  even  if  the  things  purchased  cost 
more. 

Let  us  put  wreaths  on  the  brows  of  the  liv- 
ing. 

If  nobody  has  too  much,  everybody  will  have 
enough. 

Tenements  and  flats  and  rented  lands  are,  in 
my  judgment,  the  enemies  of  civilization. 
They  make  the  rich  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer. 
They  put  a  few  in  palaces,  but  they  put  many 
in  prisons. 

The  gem  of  the  brain  is  the  innocence  of 
the  soul. 

How  beautiful  the  generosity,  the  hospi- 
tality of  childhood !  But  as  we  grow  old  there 
comes  the  love  of  gold,  and  the  love  of  gold 
seems  to  have  the  same  effect  upon  the  heart 
that  it  does  upon  the  country  where  it  is  found. 
All  the  roses  fade,  the  beautiful  green  trees  lose 
their  leaves,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  heart 
but  sage-brush.  And  so  it  is  with  the  land  that 
holds  within  the  miserly  grip  of  rocks  what  we 
call  the  precious  metals. 

It  is  disgraceful  to  be  idle,  and  dishonorable 
to  be  useless. 

Nobody  was  ever  in  prison  wrongfully  who 
did  not  believe  in  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 


Talent  has  the  four  seasons :  spring,  that  is 
to  say,  the  sowing  of  the  seeds;  summer, 
growth ;  autumn,  the  harvest ;  winter,  intellec- 
tual death.  But  there  is  now  and  then  a  genius 
who  has  no  winter,  and,  no  matter  how  many 
years  he  may  live,  on  the  blossom  of  his  thought 
no  snow  falls.  Genius  has  the  climate  of  per- 
petual growth. 

Capital  has  always  claimed  and  still  claims 
the  right  to  combine.  Manufacturers  meet  and 
determine  upon  prices,  even  in  spite  of  the  great 
law  of  supply  and  demand.  Have  the  laborers 
the  same  right  to  consult  and  combine?  The 
rich  meet  in  the  bank,  the  club-house,  or  par- 
lor. Workingmen,  when  they  combine,  gather 
in  the  street.  All  the  organized  forces  of  society 
are  against  them.  Capital  has  the  army  and 
the  navy,  the  legislative,  the  judicial,  and  the 
executive  departments.  When  the  rich  com- 
bine, it  is  for  the  purpose  of  "  exchanging  ideas. ' 
When  the  poor  combine,  it  is  "  conspiracy. '  If 
they  act  in  concert,  if  they  really  do  something, 
it  is  a  "mob."  If  they  defend  themselves,  it  is 
"treason."  How  is  it  that  the  rich  control  the 
departments  of  government?  In  this  country  the 
political  power  is  equally  divided  among  the 
men.  There  are  certainly  more  poor  than  there 
are  rich.    Why  should  the  rich  control  ? 

The  clergy  know  that  I  know  that  they 
know  that  they  do  not  know. 

I  do  not  say,  and  I  do  not  believe,  that  Chris- 
tians are  as  bad  as  their  creeds. 


Fragments. 


Some 

Interrogation 

Points. 


Orthodox'/ 


Heretics  and 
Heresies.  ^ 


Some 

Interrogation 

Points. 


Death  of  the 
Aged. 


Fragments. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 

The  Gret 
Into 


Vivisection. 


Why  should  not  the  laborers  combine  for 
the  purpose  of  controlling  the  executive,  legis- 
lative, and  judicial  departments?  Will  they  ever 
find  how  powerful  they  are? 

After  all,  there  is  something  tenderly  appro- 
priate in  the  serene  death  of  the  old.  Nothing 
is  more  touching  than  the  death  of  the  young, 
the  strong.  But  when  the  duties  of  life  have  all 
been  nobly  done ;  when  the  sun  touches  the  ho- 
rizon ;  when  the  purple  twilight  falls  upon  the 
past,  the  present,  and  the  future;  when  memory, 
with  dim  eyes,  can  scarcely  spell  the  blurred  and 
faded  records  of  the  vanished  day,  —  then,  sur- 
rounded by  kindred  and  by  friends,  death  comes 
like  a  strain  of  music.  The  day  has  been  long, 
the  road  weary,  and  the  traveler  gladly  stops  at 
the  welcome  inn. 

Nearly  forty-eight  years  ago,  under  the  snow, 
in  the  little  town  of  Cazenovia,  my  poor  mother 
was  buried.  I  was  but  two  years  old.  I  remem- 
ber her  as  she  looked  in  death.  That  sweet, 
cold  face  has  kept  my  heart  warm  through  all 
the  changing  years. 

There  is  no  slavery  but  ignorance. 

"The  word  of  God  is  the  creation  which  we 
behold." 

When  the  angel  of  pity  is  driven  from  the 
heart,  when  the  foundation  of  tears  is  dry, — 
the  soul  becomes  a  serpent  crawling  in  the  dust 
of  a  desert. 


Sleep  is  the  best  medicine  in  the  world.  It 
is  the  best  doctor  upon  the  earth. 

Happiness  is  the  legal  tender  of  the  soul. 
Joy  is  wealth. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  be  great  to  be  happy ; 
it  is  not  necessary  to  be  rich  to  be  just  and  gener- 
ous and  to  have  a  heart  filled  with  divine  affec- 
tion. No  matter  whether  you  are  rich  or  poor, 
treat  your  wife  as  though  she  were  a  splendid 
flower,  and  she  will  fill  your  life  with  perfume 
and  with  joy. 

The  road  is  short  to  anything  we  fear. 

Joy  lives  in  the  house  beyond  the  one  we 
reach. 

Youth  has  a  wish  —  old  age  a  dread.  In 
youth  the  leaves  and  buds  seem  loath  to  grow. 
Youth  shakes  the  glass  to  speed  the  lingering 
sands.  Youth  says  to  Time:  O  crutched  and 
limping  laggard,  get  thee  wings ! 

The  dawn  comes  slowly,  but  the  westering 
day  leaps  like  a  lover  to  the  dusky  bosom  of  the 
Ethiop  night. 

Vivisection  is  the  Inquisition  —  the  Hell  — 
of  Science.  All  the  cruelty  which  the  human 
—  or  rather  the  inhuman  —  heart  is  capable  of 
inflicting,  is  in  this  one  word.  Below  this  there 
is  no  depth.  This  word  lies  like  a  coiled  serpent 
at  the  bottom  of  the  abyss. 


About 
Farming  in 
Illinois. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  IVoman 
and  Child. 


Random 

Thoughts. 

Random 
Thoughts. 


Random 
Thoughts. 


Random 
Thoughts. 


Vivisection. 


A  Word 

About 
Education. 


Some  Mistakes 
of  Moses. 

On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


Funeral  of 
J.  G.  Mills, 
and 
Immortality. 


Humboldt. 


Humboldt. 


Individuality. 

V 


It  is  not  necessary  to  have  what  is  called  a 
university  education  in  order  to  be  useful  or  to 
be  happy,  any  more  than  it  is  necessary  to  be 
rich,  to  be  happy.  Great  wealth  is  a  great  burden, 
and  to  have  more  than  you  can  use,  is  to  care  for 
more  than  you  want.  The  happiest  are  those 
who  are  prosperous,  and  who  by  reasonable  en- 
deavor can  supply  their  reasonable  wants  and 
have  a  little  surplus  year  by  year  for  the  winter 
of  their  lives. 

Only  the  pure  is  sacred. 

Logic  is  the  necessary  product  of  intelligence 
and  sincerity. 

How  would  I  define  public  opinion?  First, 
in  the  widest  sense,  the  opinion  of  the  majority, 
including  all  kinds  of  people.  Second,  in  a  nar- 
row sense,  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  in- 
tellectual. Third,  in  actual  practice,  the  opinion 
of  those  who  make  the  most  noise.  Fourth, 
public  opinion  is  generally  a  mistake,  which  his- 
tory records  and  posterity  repeats. 

Most  of  the  intellectual  giants  of  the  world 
have  been  nursed  at  the  sad  and  loving  breast  of 
poverty. 

Wealth  and  position  are  generally  the  ene- 
mies of  genius,  and  the  destroyers  of  talent. 

Society  offers  continual  rewards  for  self-be- 
trayal, and  they  are  nearly  all  earned  and  claimed, 
and  some  are  paid. 


Happiness  is  the  result  of  all  that  is  really 
right  and  sane. 

I  would  like  to  see  all  the  politicians  changed 
to  statesmen, — to  men  who  long  to  make  their 
country  great  and  free,  to  men  who  care  more 
for  public  good  than  private  gain — men  who 
long  to  be  of  use. 

I  do  not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to 
die  worth  fifty  millions  of  dollars,  or  ten  millions 
of  dollars,  in  a  city  full  of  want,  when  he  meets 
almost  every  day  the  withered  hand  of  Beggary 
and  the  white  lips  of  Famine. 

What  books  would  I  recommend  for  the  pe- 
rusal of  a  young  man  of  limited  time  and  cul- 
ture with  reference  to  helping  him  in  the  de- 
velopment of  intellect  and  good  character  ?  The 
works  of  Darwin,  Ernst,  Haeckel,  Draper's 
"Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,"  Buckle's 
"History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  Lecky's 
"History  of  European  Morals,"  Voltaire's  "Phil- 
osophical Dictionary,"  Buchner's  "Force  and 
Matter,"  Wait's  "Liberty  of  the  Christian  Reli- 
gion," Paine's  "Age  of  Reason,"  D'Holbach's 
"System  of  Nature,"  and,  above  all,  Shakespeare. 
Do  not  forget  Burns,  Shelley,  Dickens  and  Hugo. 

Happiness  dwells  in  the  valleys  with  the 
shadows.  v 

I  had  rather  be  a  beggar  and  spend  my  last 
dollar  like  a  king,  than  to  be  a  king  and  spend 
my  money  like  a  beggar. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


What  I  Want 
Jor  Christmas. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Fragments. 


Protection 
for  American 
Acton. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
andOtild. 


Individuality. 

— — S 

Individuality. 

■y 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  Woman 

and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  Woman 

and  Child. 


Some  Reasons 
.      Why. 


n/ 


Custom  meets  us  at  the  cradle  and  leaves  us 
only  at  the  tomb. 

Universal  obedience  is  universal  stagnation; 
disobedience  is  one  of  the  conditions  of  progress. 

That  mankind  can  be  divided  into  two  great 
classes,  sinners  and  saints,  is  an  utter  falsehood. 

I  regard  marriage  as  the  holiest  institution 
among  men. 

There  is  only  one  way  to  be  happy,  and  that 
is  to  make  somebody  else  so. 

Standing  in  the  presence  of  the  Unknown, 
all  have  the  same  right  to  think,  and  all  are 
equally  interested  in  the  great  questions  of  origin 
and  destiny. 

Belief  is  not  a  voluntary  thing.  A  man  be- 
lieves or  disbelieves  in  spite  of  himself.  They 
tell  us  that  to  believe  is  the  safe  way ;  but  I  say, 
the  safe  way  is  to  be  honest.  Nothing  can  be 
safer  than  that.  No  man  in  the  hour  of  death 
ever  regretted  having  been  honest.  No  man  when 
the  shadows  of  the  last  day  were  gathering  about 
the  pillow  of  death,  ever  regretted  that  he  had 
given  to  his  fellow  man  his  honest  thought.  No 
man,  in  the  presence  of  eternity,  ever  wished  that 
he  had  been  a  hypocrite.  No  man  ever  then  re- 
gretted that  he  did  not  throw  away  his  reason. 
It  certainly  cannot  be  necessary  to  throw  away 
your  reason  to  save  your  soul,  because,  after  that, 
your  soul  is  not  worth  saving.    The  soul   has  a 


right  to  defend  itself.  My  brain  is  my  castle, 
and  when  I  waive  the  right  to  defend  it,  I  become 
an  intellectual  serf  and  slave. 

The  world  is  beginning  to  pay  homage  to 
intellect,  to  genius,  to  heart. 

He  who  endeavors  to  control  the  mind  by 
force  is  a  tyrant,  and  he  who  submits  is  a  slave. 

If  we  attend  to  this  world  instead  of  another, 
we  may  in  time  cover  the  land  with  men  and 
women  of  genius. 

Nothing  discloses  real  character  like  the  use 
of  power. 

The  great  poets  have  sympathized  with  the 
people.  They  have  uttered  in  all  ages  the  human 
cry.  Unbought  by  gold,  unawed  by  power,  they 
have  lifted  high  the  torch  that  illuminates  the 
world. 

To  plow  is  to  pray;  to  plant  is  to  prophesy; 
and  the  harvest  answers  and  fulfils. 

I  believe  it  is  the  duty  of  a  lawyer,  no  mat- 
ter whether  prosecuting  or  defending,  to  make 
the  testimony  as  clear  as  he  can.  If  there  is  any- 
thing contradictory  it  is  his  business  if  he  possi- 
bly can  to  make  it  clear.  If  there  is  any  question 
of  law  about  which  there  is  a  doubt  it  is  his 
right  and  it  is  his  duty  to  give  to  the  court  the 
result  of  his  study  and  of  his  thoughts  for  the 
purpose  of  enlightening    the    court    upon    that 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Some  Mistakes 


of  Moses 


V 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  IVoman 
and  Child. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


About 
Farming  in 
Illinois. 


First 

Star-Route 

Trial. 


Hozv 
to  Reform 
Mankind. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

First 

Interview. 


Reply  to  the 

Indianapolis 

Clergy. 


particular  branch  of  law.  No  matter  if  he  may 
believe  the  court  understands  it,  if  there  is  the 
slightest  fear  that  the  court  does  not  or  has  for- 
gotten it,  it  is  his  duty  to  bring  the  attention  of 
the  court  to  that  law.  It  is  not  his  duty  to  abuse 
anybody.  It  is  not  my  duty  to  abuse  anybody. 
There  is  no  logic  in  abuse,  not  the  slightest;  and 
when  a  lawyer,  under  the  pretext  of  explaining 
the  evidence  to  the  jury,  calls  a  defendant  a  thief 
and  a  robber,  he  steps  beyond  the  line  of  duty 
and,  in  my  judgment,  beyond  the  line  of  his 
privilege. 

In  judging  of  the  rich,  two  things  should  be 
considered:  how  did  they  get  their  wealth,  and 
what  are  they  doing  with  it?  Was  it  honestly  ac- 
quired? Is  it  being  used  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind? When  people  become  really  intelligent, 
when  the  brain  is  really  developed,  no  human  be- 
ing will  give  his  life  to  the  acquisition  of  what 
he  does  not  need  or  what  he  cannot  intelligently 
use. 

After  all,  men  are  the  best  books. 

So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  think  more  of 
reasons  than  of  reputations,  more  of  principles 
than  of  persons,  more  of  nature  than  of  names, 
more  of  facts  than  of  faiths. 

We  do  not  yet  understand  the  action  of  the 
brain.  No  one  knows  the  origin  of  a  thought. 
No  one  knows  how  he  thinks,  or  why  he  thinks, 
any  more  than  one  knows  why  or  how  his  heart 
beats. 


IO 


This  is  a  world  of  progress,  a  world  of  per- 
petual change  —  a  succession  of  coffins  and  cra- 
dles. When  an  old  religion  dies,  a  better  one  is 
born. 


Orthodoxy. 


nod  ox 

V 


I  believe,  to  a  certain  degree,  that  every  man 
who  makes  whisky  is  demoralized.  I  believe,  to 
a  certain  degree,  it  demoralizes  those  who  make 
it,  those  who  sell  it,  and  those  who  drink  it.  I 
believe  from  the  time  it  issues  from  the  coiled 
and  poisonous  worm  of  the  distillery,  until  it 
empties  into  the  hell  of  crime,  dishonor,  and 
death,  that  it  demoralizes  everybody  that  touched 
it.  I  do  not  believe  anybody  can  contemplate 
the  subject  without  becoming  prejudiced  against 
this  liquid  crime.  All  we  have  to  do,  is  to  think 
of  the  wrecks  upon  either  bank  of  the  stream  of 
death — of  the  suicides,  of  the  insanity,  of  the 
poverty,  of  the  ignorance,  of  the  distress,  of  the 
little  children  tugging  at  the  faded  dresses  of 
weeping  and  despairing  wives,  asking  for  bread; 
of  the  men  of  genius  it  has  wrecked;  the  mil- 
lions struggling  with  imaginary  serpents  produced 
by  this  devilish  thing.  And  when  you  think  of 
the  jails,  of  the  almshouses,  of  the  asylums,  of 
the  prisons,  of  the  scaffolds  upon  either  bank — 
I  do  not  wonder  that  every  thoughtful  man  is 
prejudiced  against  the  damned  stuff  called  alco- 
hol. 


The  Munn 
Trial. 


The  disappointed  in  love,  broken  in  heart — 
the  light  fading  from  their  lives — seek  the  refuge 
of  death. 


Is  Suicide  a 
Sin  f 


Let  us  be  merciful  in  our  judgments. 


Is  Suicide  a 
Sinf 


I  I 


Some  Mistakes 
of  Moses. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


What  Must 

We  Do  to  Be 

Saved? 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  JVoman 

and  Child. 


Some  Reasons 
Why. 


About 

Farming  in 

Illinois. 

On  Voltaire. 


Sixth 
Interview. 


Which  Way  ? 


A  fact  will  fit  every  other  fact  in  the  uni- 
verse, because  it  is  the  product  of  all  other  facts. 
A  lie  will  fit  nothing  except  another  lie  made  for 
the  express  purpose  of  fitting  it. 

I  say,  let  us  think.  Let  each  one  express  his 
thought.  Let  us  become  investigators,  not  fol- 
lowers, not  cringers  and  crawlers.  If  there  is  in 
heaven  an  infinite  Being,  He  never  will  be  satis- 
fied with  the  worship  of  cowards  and  hypocrites. 

Hearts  of  dust  do  not  break.  The  dead  do 
not  weep. 

The  man  who  does  not  do  his  own  thinking 
is  a  slave,  and  is  a  traitor  to  himself  and  to  his 
fellow  men. 

Conscience  is  born  of  suffering.  Mercy  is 
the  child  of  the  imagination. 

Selfishness  is  ignorance. 

After  all,  we  do  not  feel  an  interest  in  what 
is  to  become  of  our  bodies.  There  is  a  modesty 
that  belongs  to  death. 

In  the  world  of  thought,  each  man  is  an  ab- 
solute monarch,  each  brain  is  a  kingdom,  that 
cannot  be  invaded  even  by  the  tyranny  of  ma- 
jorities. 

The  self-evident  is  the  square  and  compass 
of  the  brain,  the  polar  star  in  the  firmament  of 
mind. 


12 


I  believe  the  people  to  be  the  only  rightful 
source  of  political  power,  and  that  any  commu- 
nity, no  matter  where,  in  which  any  citizen  is 
not  allowed  to  have  his  voice  in  the  making  of 
the  laws  he  must  obey,  that  community  is  a  tyr- 
anny. 

Judges  keep  their  backs  to  the  dawn.  They 
find  what  has  been,  what  is,  but  not  what  ought 
to  be.  They  are  tied  and  shackled  by  precedent, 
fettered  by  old  decisions,  and  by  the  desire  to  be 
consistent,  even  in  mistakes.  They  pass  upon  the 
acts  and  words  of  others,  and,  like  other  people, 
they  are  liable  to  make  mistakes. 

All  officers — including  judges — are  simply 
their  servants,  and  the  sovereign  has  always  the 
right  to  give  his  opinion  as  to  the  action  of  his 
agent.  The  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  the  rock 
upon  which  rests  the  right  of  speech  and  the 
freedom  of  the  press. 

Words  die.  Every  language  has  a  cemetery. 
Every  now  and  then  a  word  dies  and  a  tombstone 
is  erected,  and  across  it  is  written  "obsolete." 

While  I  cannot  tell  a  man  what  to  do  to  be- 
come an  orator,  I  can  tell  him  a  few  things  not 
to  do.  There  should  be  no  introduction  to  an 
oration.  The  orator  should  commence  with  his 
subject.  There  should  be  no  prelude,  no  flourish, 
no  apology,  no  explanation.  He  should  say  noth- 
ing about  himself.  Like  a  sculptor,  he  stands 
by  his  block  of  stone.  Every  stroke  is  for  a  pur- 
pose.    As  he  works  the  form  begins  to  appear. 


Suffrage 
Address. 


Civil  Rights. 


Ci-vil  Rights. 


Orth 


-thodoxy. 

7 


Hoiv  to 
Become  an 
Orator. 


!3 


The  Truth. 


J 


Is  Suicide 
a  Sin  f 


Vivisection. 


J 


i 


Why  I  Ami 

an  AgnostijK 

Centennial 
Oration. 

Hoiv 
to  Reform 
Mankind. 


The  Munn 
Trial. 


When  the  statue  is  finished  the  workman  stops. 
Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  a  perfect  close. 
Few  poems,  few  pieces  of  music,  few  novels  end 
well.  A  good  story,  a  great  speech,  a  perfect 
poem  should  end  just  at  the  proper  point.  The 
bud,  the  blossom,  the  fruit.  No  delay.  A  great 
speech  is  a  crystallization  in  its  logic,  an  efflores- 
cence in  its  poetry. 

No  subject  can  be  too  sacred  to  be  under- 
stood. Each  person  should  be  allowed  to  reach 
his  own  conclusions  and  to  speak  his  honest 
thought. 

Those  who  attempt  suicide  should  not  be  pun- 
ished. If  they  are  insane  they  should,  if  possi- 
ble, be  restored  to  reason ;  if  sane,  they  should 
be  reasoned  with,  calmed  and  assisted. 

Brain  without  heart  is  far  more  dangerous 
than  heart  without  brain. 

Belief  is  not  subject  to  the  will. 

Every  man  in  the  right  is  my  brother. 

Good  deeds  bear  fruit,  and  in  the  fruit  are 
seeds  that  in  their  turn  bear  fruit  and  seeds.  Great 
thoughts  are  never  lost,  and  words  of  kindness 
do  not  perish  from  the  earth. 

Good  character  is  not  made  in  a  day.  It  is 
the  work  of  a  life.  The  walls  of  that  grand  edi- 
fice called  a  good  character  have  to  be  worked 
at  during  life.    All  the  good  deeds,  all  the  good 


H 


words,  everything  right  and  true  and  honest  that 
he  does,  goes  into  this  edifice,  and  it  is  domed 
and  pinnacled  with  lofty  aspirations  and  grand 
ambitions.  It  is  not  made  in  a  day,  neither  can 
it  be  crumbled  into  blackened  dust  by  a  word 
from  the  putrid  mouth  of  a  perjurer. 

Without  friends  and  wife  and  child,  there  is 
nothing  left  worth  living  for. 

Brain  without  heart  is  not  much;  they  must 
act  together. 

The  greatest  statues  need  the  least  drapery. 

It  is  an  insanity  to  get  more  than  you  want. 
Imagine  a  man  in  this  city,  an  intelligent  man, 
say  with  two  or  three  millions  of  coats,  eight  or 
ten  millions  of  hats,  vast  warehouses  full  of  shoes, 
billions  of  neckties,  and  imagine  that  man  get- 
ting up  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in  the 
rain  and  snow  and  sleet,  working  like  a  dog  all 
day  to  get  another  necktie !  Is  not  that  exactly 
what  the  man  of  twenty  or  thirty  millions,  or  of 
five  millions,  does  today  ?  Wearing  his  life  out 
that  somebody  may  say,  "  How  rich  he  is ! " 
What  can  he  do  with  the  surplus?  Nothing. 
Can  he  eat  it?  No.  Make  friends?  No.  Pur- 
chase flattery  and  lies  ?  Yes.  Make  all  his  poor 
relations  hate  him?  Yes.  And  then,  what  worry! 
Annoyed,  nervous,  tormented,  until  his  poor  lit- 
tle brain  becomes  inflamed,  and  you  see  in  the 
morning  paper,  "Died  of  apoplexy"  !  This  man 
finally  began  to  worry  for  fear  he  would  not  have 
enough  neckties  to  last  him  through. 


About 
Farming  in 
Illinois. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

A  Lay  Sermon. 


Rtply  to 
Gladstone. 


The 
Limitations  of 
Toleration. 


Christian 

Religion. 


i 


Decoration 
Day  Oration. 


First 

Star-Route 

Trial. 


W 'hat  Must 

We  Do  to  Be 

Saved? 


If  belief  depends  upon  the  will,  can  all  men 
have  correct  opinions  who  will  to  have  them? 
Honest  opinions  may  be  wrong,  and  opinions  dis- 
honestly expressed  may  be  right. 

If  you  tell  your  thought  at  all,  tell  your  hon- 
est thought.  Do  not  be  a  parrot — do  not  be  an 
instrumentality  for  an  organization.  Tell  your 
own  thought,  "honor  bright." 

What  is  right  and  what  is  wrong?  Every- 
thing is  right  that  tends  to  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind, and  everything  is  wrong  that  increases  the 
sum  of  human  misery. 

He  loves  his  country  best  who  strives  to  make 
it  best.  The  bravest  men  are  those  who  have 
the  greatest  fear  of  doing  wrong.  Mere  politi- 
cians wish  the  country  to  do  something  for  them. 
True  patriots  desire  to  do  something  for  their 
country.  Courage  without  conscience  is  a  wild 
beast.  Patriotism  without  principle  is  the  preju- 
dice of  birth,  the  animal  attachment  to  place. 

The  higher  you  get  in  the  scale  of  being, 
the  grander,  the  nobler,  and  the  tenderer  you 
will  become.  Kindness  is  always  an  evidence  of 
greatness.  Malice  is  the  property  of  small  souls. 
Whoever  allows  the  feeling  of  brotherhood  to 
die  in  his  heart  becomes  a  wild  beast.  You  know 
it  and  so  do  I. 

The  honest  man,  the  good  woman,  the  happy 
child,  have  nothing  to  fear,  either  in  this  world 
or  the  world  to  come. 


16 


There  is  nothing  shrewder  in  this  world  than 
intelligent  honesty. 

Words  are  the  garments  of  thought,  the  robes 
of  ideas. 

I  believe  that  every  article  appearing  in  a 
paper  should  be  signed  by  the  writer.  If  it  is 
libelous,  then  the  writer  and  the  publisher  should 
both  be  held  responsible  in  damages.  The  law 
on  this  subject,  if  changed,  should  throw  greater 
safeguards  around  the  reputation  of  the  citizen. 
It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  the  papers  have  any 
right  to  complain.  Probably  a  good  many  suits 
are  brought  that  should  not  be  instituted,  but 
just  think  of  the  suits  that  are  not  brought! 

Thought  is  the  means  by  which  we  endeavor 
to  arrive  at  truth. 

I  am  willing  to  be  on  an  equality  in  all  hotels, 
in  all  cars,  in  all  theaters,  with  colored  people. 
I  make  no  distinction  of  race.  Those  make  the 
distinction  who  cannot  afford  not  to.  If  nature 
has  made  no  distinction  between  me  and  some 
others,  I  do  not  ask  the  aid  of  the  legislature. 

For  the  most  part  we  inherit  our  opinions. 
We  are  the  heirs  of  habits  and  mental  customs. 
Our  beliefs,  like  the  fashion  of  our  garments,  de- 
pend on  where  we  were  born.  We  are  molded 
and  fashioned  by  our  surroundings. 

I  would  like  to  see  both  drunkenness  and 
prohibition  abolished. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


The  Ghosts. 


The  Libel 
Laws. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Civil  Rights 
Bill. 


What  I  Want 
for 


or  Chrikn 

4 


17 


Brooklyn 
Speech. 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  Woman 

and  Child. 


The  Gods. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


The 
Limitations  of 
Toleration. 


Humboldt. 


The  Gods. 


If  I  should  write  my  last  sentence  on  relig- 
ious topics,  what  would  be  my  closing?  "I  now 
in  the  presence  of  death  affirm  and  reaffirm  the 
truth,  of  all  that  I  have  said  against  the  supersti- 
tions of  the  world."  I  would  say  at  least  that 
much  on  the  subject  with  my  last  breath. 

Let  me  say  once  for  all,  that  when  I  speak 
of  God,  I  mean  the  Being  described  by  Moses; 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews.  There  may  be,  for 
aught  I  know,  somewhere  in  the  unknown 
shoreless  vast,  some  Being  whose  dreams  are  con- 
stellations and  within  whose  thought  the  infinite 
exists.  About  this  Being,  if  such  a  one  exists,  I 
have  nothing  to  say. 

The  ignorant  multiply  much  faster  than  the 
intellectual. 

Nations,  like  individuals,  have  their  periods 
of  youth,  of  manhood,  and  decay. 

Happiness  is  the  true  end  and  aim  of  life. 

The  only  possible  good  in  the  universe  is 
happiness.  The  time  to  be  happy  is  now.  The 
place  to  be  happy  is  here.  The  way  to  be  happy 
is  to  try  and  make  somebody  else  so. 

Wisdom  is  the  science  of  happiness. 

We  are  looking  for  the  time  when  the  use- 
ful shall  be  the  honorable,  and  when  Reason, 
throned  upon  the  world's  brain,  shall  be  the  King 
of  kings,  and  God  of  gods. 


18 


Reason  is  a  better  guide  than  fear. 

Reason  is  the  highest  attribute  of  man. 

It  is  thought  by  many  that  it  is  dangerous  for 
thirteen  people  to  dine  together.  Now,  if  thir- 
teen is  a  dangerous  number,  twenty-six  ought  to 
be  twice  as  dangerous,  and  fifty-two  four  times 
as  terrible. 

Overturning  the  salt  is  very  unlucky,  but 
spilling  the  vinegar  makes  no  difference.  Why 
salt  should  be  revengeful  and  vinegar  forgiving 
has  never  been  told. 

Morality  is  the  harmony  between  act  and 
circumstances.    It  is  the  melody  of  conduct. 

Most  people  imagine  that  men  have  always 
talked;  that  language  is  as  old  as  the  race;  and 
it  is  supposed  that  some  language  was  taught  by 
some  mythological  god  to  the  first  pair.  But  we 
now  know,  if  we  know  anything,  that  language 
is  a  growth ;  that  every  word  had  to  be  created 
by  man,  and  that  back  of  every  word  is  some 
want,  some  wish,  some  necessity  of  the  body  or 
mind,  and  also  a  genius  to  embody  that  want  or 
that  wish,  to  express  that  thought  to  some  sound 
that  we  call  a  word. 

At  first,  the  probability  is,  men  uttered  sounds 
of  fear,  of  content,  of  anger,  or  happiness.  And 
the  probability  is  that  the  first  sounds  Or  cries  ex- 
pressed such  feelings,  and  these  sounds  were 
nouns,  adjectives,  and  verbs. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 

Some  Mistakes^'' 
of  Moses.    /{ 

Superstition. 


Superstition. 


Art  ana 

Morality. 


Language. 


Language. 


»9 


Language. 


Language. 


Brooklyn 
Speech. 


After  a  time,  man  began  to  give  his  ideas  to 
others  by  rude  pictures,  drawings  of  animals  and 
trees  and  the  various  other  things  with  which  he 
could  give  rude  thoughts.  At  first  he  would 
make  a  picture  of  the  whole  animal.  Afterwards 
some  part  of  the  animal  would  stand  for  the 
whole,  and  in  some  of  the  old  picture-writings 
the  curve  of  the  nostril  of  a  horse  stands  for  the 
animal.  This  was  the  shorthand  of  picture-writ- 
ing. But  it  was  a  long  journey  to  where  marks 
would  stand,  not  for  pictures,  but  for  sounds.  And 
then  think  of  the  distance  still  to  the  alphabet! 
Then  to  writing,  so  that  marks  took  entirely  the 
place  of  pictures.  Then  the  invention  of  mova- 
ble type,  and  then  the  press,  making  it  possible 
to  save  the  wealth  of  the  brain ;  making  it  pos- 
sible for  a  man  to  leave  not  simply  his  property 
to  his  fellow  man,  not  houses  and  lands  and  dol- 
lars, but  his  ideas,  his  thoughts,  his  theories,  his 
dreams,  the  poetry  and  pathos  of  his  soul.  Now 
each  generation  is  heir  to  all  the  past. 

If  we  had  free  thought,  then  we  could  col- 
lect the  wealth  of  the  intellectual  world.  In  the 
physical  world  springs  make  the  creeks  and 
brooks,  and  they  the  rivers,  and  the  rivers  empty 
into  the  great  sea.  So  each  brain  should  add  to 
the  sum  of  human  knowledge.  If  we  deny  free- 
dom of  thought,  the  springs  cease  to  gurgle,  the 
rivers  to  run,  and  the  great  ocean  of  knowledge 
becomes  a  desert  of  barren  ignorant  sand. 

I  am  going  with  the  Republican  Party  because 
it  is  going  my  way ;  but  if  it  ever  turns  to  the 
right  or  left,  I  intend  to  go  straight  ahead. 


20 


If  I  had  the  power  to  produce  exactly  what 
I  want  for  next  Christmas,  I  would  have  all  the 
kings  and  emperors  resign  and  allow  the  people 
to  govern  themselves. 

I  would  like  to  see  corporal  punishment  done 
away  with  in  every  home,  in  every  school,  in 
every  asylum,  reformatory,  and  prison.  Cruelty 
hardens  and  degrades,  kindness  reforms  and  en- 
nobles. 

I  would  like  to  see  the  millionaires  unite  and 
form  a  trust  for  the  public  good. 

I  would  like  to  see  a  fair  division  of  profits 
between  capital  and  labor,  so  that  the  toiler  could 
save  enough  to  mingle  a  little  June  with  the 
December  of  his  life. 

I  would  like  to  see  an  international  court 
established  in  which  to  settle  disputes  between 
nations,  so  that  armies  could  be  disbanded  and 
the  great  navies  allowed  to  rust  and  rot  in  per- 
fect peace. 

I  would  like  to  see  the  whole  world  free — 
free  from  injustice,  free  from  superstition. 

I  would  have  all  the  nobility  drop  their  titles 
and  give  their  lands  back  to  the  people.  I  would 
have  all  the  cardinals,  archbishops,  bishops,  priests 
and  clergymen  admit  that  they  know  nothing 
about  theology,  nothing  about  hell  or  heaven, 
nothing  about  the  destiny  of  the  human  race, 
nothing  about  devils  or  ghosts,  gods  or  angels.    I 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


V 


What  I  Want 
for  Christmas. 


21 


Should 

the  Chinese  be 

Excluded? 


would  have  them  tell  all  their  "flock"  to  think 
for  themselves,  to  be  manly  men  and  womanly 
women,  and  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  increase 
the  sum  of  human  happiness. 

Chinese  laborers  are  inoffensive,  peaceable 
and  law-abiding.  They  are  honest,  keeping  their 
contracts,  doing  as  they  agree.  They  are  exceed- 
ingly industrious,  always  ready  to  work  and 
always  giving  satisfaction  to  their  employers. 
They  do  not  interfere  with  other  people.  They 
cannot  become  citizens.  They  have  no  voice  in 
the  making  or  the  execution  of  the  laws.  They 
attend  to  their  own  business.  They  have  their 
own  ideas,  customs,  religion  and  ceremonies  — 
about  as  foolish  as  our  own;  but  they  do  not 
try  to  make  converts  or  to  force  their  dogmas  on 
others.  They  are  patient,  uncomplaining,  stoi- 
cal and  philosophical.  They  earn  what  they 
can,  giving  reasonable  value  for  the  money  which 
they  receive,  and,  as  a  rule,  when  they  have 
amassed  a  few  thousand  dollars,  they  go  back  to 
their  own  country.  They  do  not  interfere  with 
our  ideas,  our  ways  or  customs.  They  are  silent 
workers,  toiling  without  any  object,  except  to  do 
their  work  and  get  their  pay.  They  do  not  estab- 
lish saloons  and  run  for  Congress.  Neither  do  they 
combine  for  the  purpose  of  governing  others.  Of 
all  the  people  on  our  soil  they  are  the  least  med- 
dlesome. Some  of  them  smoke  opium,  but  the 
opium-smoker  does  not  beat  his  wife.  Some  of 
them  play  games  of  chance,  but  they  are  not  mem- 
bers of  the  Stock  Exchange.  They  eat  the  bread 
that  they  earn ;  they  neither  beg  nor  steal,  but 
they    are    of    no    use    to    parties    or    politicians 


22 


except  as  they  become  fuel  to  supply  the  flame 
of  prejudice.  They  are  not  citizens  and  they 
cannot  vote.  Their  employers  are  about  the 
only  friends  they  have. 

The  wanderers  hope  for  home.  Hope  builds 
the  house  and  plants  the  flowers  and  fills  the  air 
with  song. 

The  sick  and  suffering  hope  for  health.  Hope 
gives  them  health  and  paints  the  roses  in  their 
cheeks. 

The  lonely,  the  forsaken,  hope  for  love.  Hope 
brings  the  lover  to  their  arms.  They  feel  the 
kisses  on  their  eager  lips. 

The  poor  in  tenements  and  huts,  in  spite  of 
rags  and  hunger,  hope  for  wealth.  Hope  fills  their 
thin  and  trembling  hands  with  gold. 

The  dying  hope  that  death  is  but  another 
birth,  and  Love  leans  above  the  pallid  face  and 
whispers:   "We  shall  meet  again." 

Hope  is  the  consolation  of  the  world. 

Let  us  hope  that  if  there  be  another  life  it 
will  bring  peace  and  joy  to  all  the  children  of 
men.  \-v=^ 

And  let  us  hope  that  this  poor  earth  on 
which  we  live  may  be  a  perfect  world — a  world 
without  a  crime,  without  a  tear. 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 

1/ 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 

The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 

The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 


The 
Foundations 


of  Faith. 


Is 


23 


LIFE. 

on  Lift.  Born  of  love  and  hope,  of  ecstasy  and  pain, 

of  agony  and  fear,  of  tears  and  joy ;  dowered 
with  the  wealth  of  two  united  hearts;  held  in 
happy  arms,  with  lips  upon  life's  drifted  font, 
blue-veined  and  fair,  where  perfect  peace  finds 
perfect  form ;  rocked  by  willing  feet  and  wooed 
to  shadowy  shores  of  sleep  by  siren  mother  sing- 
ing soft  and  low ;  looking  with  wonder's  wide 
and  startled  eyes  at  common  things  of  life  and 
day;  taught  by  want  and  wish  and  contact 
with  the  things  that  touch  the  dimpled  flesh 
of  babes ;  lured  by  light  and  flame,  and  charmed 
by  color's  wondrous  robes;  learning  the  use  of 
hands  and  feet,  and  by  the  loVe  of  mimicry 
beguiled  to  utter  speech;  releasing  prisoned 
thoughts  from  crabbed  and  curious  marks  on 
soiled  and  tattered  leaves;  puzzling  the  brain 
with  crooked  numbers  and  their  changing, 
tangled  worth, — and  so  through  years  of  alter- 
nating day  and  night  until  the  captive  grows 
familiar  with  the  chains  and  walls  and  limita- 
tions of  a  life. 

And  time  runs  on  in  sun  and  shade  until  the 
one  of  all  the  world  is  wooed  and  won,  and  all 
the  lore  of  love  is  taught  and  learned  again. 
Again  a  home  is  built  with  the  fair  chamber 
wherein  faint  dreams,  like  cool  and  shadowy 
vales,  divide  the  billowed  hours  of  love.  Again 
the  miracle  of  a  birth — the  pain  and  joy,  the 
kiss  of  welcome  and  the  cradle-song  drowning 
the  drowsy  prattle  of  a  babe. 


24 


And   then  the    sense  of  obligation    and  of         °"  ufe- 
wrong :   pity  for  those  who  toil  and  weep ;    tears 
for  the  imprisoned  and  despised;  love   for  the 
generous  dead,  and  in  the  heart  the  rapture  of  a 
high  resolve. 

And  then  Ambition,  with  its  lust  of  pelf  °"  Life- 
and  place  and  power,  longing  to  put  upon  its 
breast  distinction's  worthless  badge.  Then  keener 
thoughts  of  men,  and  eyes  that  see  behind  the 
smiling  mask  of  craft — flattered  no  more  by  the 
obsequious  cringe  of  gain  and  greed,  knowing 
the  uselessness  of  hoarded  gold,  of  honor  bought 
from  those  who  charge  the  usury  of  self-respect, 
of  power  that  only  bends  a  coward's  knees  and 
forces  from  the  lips  of  Fear  the  lies  of  praise. 
Knowing  at  last  the  unstudied  gesture  of  esteem, 
the  reverent  eyes  made  rich  with  honest  thought, 
and  holding  high  above  all  other  things — high 
as  hope's  great  throbbing  star  above  the  dark- 
ness of  the  dead  —  the  love  of  wife  and  child 
and  friend. 

Then  locks  of  gray,  and  growing  love  of  other         °"  Life- 
days  and  half-remembered  things ;  then  holding 
withered  hands  of  those  who  first  held  his,  while 
over  dim  and  loving  eyes  Death  softly  presses 
down  the  lids  of  rest. 

And  so,  locking  in  marriage  vows  his  chil-  0n  L'fe- 
dren's  hands  and  crossing  others  on  the  breasts 
of  peace,  with  daughter's  babes  upon  his  knees, 
the  white  hair  mingling  with  the  gold,  he  jour- 
neys on  from  day  to  day  to  that  horizon  where 
the  dusk  is  waiting  for  the  night.    At  last,  sitting 


25 


The  Christian 
Religion. 


Is  Life  Worth 
Living  f 


Individuality. 


Reply  to  the 

Indianapolis 

Clergy. 


V 


About 

Farming  in 

Illinois. 


by  the  holy  hearth  of  home  as  evening's  embers 
change  from  red  to  gray,  he  falls  asleep  within 
the  arms  of  her  he  worshiped  and  adored,  feel- 
ing upon  his  pallid  lips  Love's  last  and  holiest  kiss. 

Life  is  a  shadowy,  strange  and  winding  road 
on  which  we  travel  for  a  little  way  —  a  few  short 
steps,  just  from  the  cradle,  with  its  lullaby  of 
love,  to  the  low  and  quiet  wayside  inn,  where  all 
at  last  must  sleep,  and  where  the  only  salutation 
is,  Good  night. 

I  like  to  be  alive,  to  breathe  the  air,  to  look 
at  the  landscape,  the  clouds  and  stars,  to  repeat 
old  poems,  to  look  at  pictures  and  statues,  to 
hear  music,  the  voices  of  the  ones  I  love.  I  enjoy 
eating  and  smoking.  I  like  good  cold  water.  I 
like  to  talk  to  my  wife,  my  girls,  my  grandchil- 
dren. I  like  to  sleep  and  to  dream, — yes,  life 
to  me  is  worth  living. 

Over  the  vast  plain  called  life,  we  are  all  trav- 
elers, and  not  one  traveler  is  perfectly  certain 
that  he  is  going  in  the  right  direction. 

After  all,  of  what  use  is  it  to  search  for  a 
creator  ?  The  difficulty  is  not  thus  solved.  You 
leave  your  creator  as  much  in  need  of  a  creator 
as  anything  your  creator  is  supposed  to  have 
created.  The  bottom  of  your  stairs  rests  on 
nothing,  and  the  top  of  your  stairs  leans  upon 
nothing.    You  have  reached  no  solution. 

Have  the  courage  to  take  life  as  it  comes, 
feast  or  famine. 


26 


Man  must  give  up  searching  for  the  origin 
of  anything.  No  one  knows  the  origin  of  life, 
or  of  matter,  or  of  what  we  call  mind.  The 
Whence  and  the  Whither  are  questions  that  no 
man  can  answer.  In  the  presence  of  these  ques- 
tions all  intellects  are  upon  a  level. 

Disguise  it  as  we  may,  we  live  in  a  frightful 
world,  with  evils,  with  enemies,  on  every  side. 
From  the  hedges  along  the  path  of  life  leap  the 
bandits  that  murder  and  destroy;  and  every  hu- 
man being,  no  matter  how  often  he  escapes,  at 
last  will  fall  beneath  the  assassin's  knife. 

To  change  the  figure:  We  are  all  passengers 
on  the  train  of  life.  The  tickets  give  the  names 
of  the  stations  where  we  boarded  the  car,  but 
the  destination  is  unknown.  At  every  station 
some  passengers,  pallid,  breathless,  dead,  are  put 
away,  and  some  with  the  light  of  morning  in 
their  eyes  get  on. 

To  change  the  figure  again:  On  the  wide  sea 
of  life  we  are  on  ships  or  rafts  or  spars,  and 
some  by  friendly  winds  are  borne  to  the  fortunate 
isles,  and  some  by  storms  are  wrecked  on  the 
cruel  rocks.  And  yet  upon  the  isles  the  same  as 
on  the  rocks,  Death  waits  for  all.  And  Death 
alone  can  truly  say,  "All  things  come  to  him 
who  waits." 

Back  of  life,  of  existence,  we  cannot  go  ;  be- 
yond death  we  cannot  see.  All  duties,  all  obli- 
gations, all  knowledge,  all  experience,  are  for 
this  life,  for  this  world. 


Reply  to  the 
Indianapolis 
Clergy. 


/ 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


The  Truth. 


H 


27 


Is  Suicide  a 
Sin? 


The  Great 
Infidels. 


On 

Shakespeare. 


Why  I  Am 

an  Agnostic. 


Life  is  not  the  same  to  all  —  to  some  a  bless- 
ing, to  some  a  curse,  to  some  not  much  in  any 
way.  Some  leave  it  with  unspeakable  regret, 
some  with  the  keenest  joy,  and  some  with  in- 
difference. 

With  nations  as  with  individuals,  the  strug- 
gle for  life  is  perpetual,  and  the  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest  applies  equally  to  both. 

When  men  are  prosperous,  they  are  in  love 
with  life. 

True  religion  is  not  a  theory  —  it  is  practice. 
It  is  not  a  creed — it  is  a  life. 

The  tree  of  life  grew  in  India,  in  China, 
and  among  the  Aztecs,  long  before  the  Garden 
of  Eden  was  planted. 


28 


CAUSE  AND  EFFECT 

Every  cause  must  produce  an  effect,  because 
until  it  does  produce  an  effect,  it  is  not  a  cause. 
Every  effect  must  in  its  turn  become  a  cause. 
Therefore,  in  the  nature  of  things,  there  cannot 
be  a  last  cause,  for  the  reason  that  a  so-called 
last  cause  would  necessarily  produce  an  effect, 
and  that  effect  must  of  necessity  become  a  cause. 
The  converse  of  these  propositions  must  be  true. 
Every  effect  must  have  had  a  cause,  and  every 
cause  must  have  been  an  effect.  Therefore,  there 
could  have  been  no  first  cause.  A  first  cause  is 
just  as  impossible  as  a  last  effect. 

The  consequences  of  a  bad  action  cannot  be 
avoided ;  they  are  the  invisible  police,  the  unseen 
avengers,  that  accept  no  gifts,  that  hear  no  prayers, 
that  no  cunning  can  deceive. 

In  this  world  there  is  neither  chance  nor 
caprice  —  neither  magic  nor  miracle.  Behind 
every  event,  every  thought  and  dream,  is  the 
efficient,  the  natural  and  necessary  cause. 

Recollect,  that  for  every  bad  act,  there  will 
be  laid  upon  your  shoulder  the  arresting  hand  of 
the  consequences ;  and  it  is  precisely  the  same 
with  a  nation  as  it  is  with  an  individual.  You 
have  got  to  pay  for  all  of  your  mistakes,  and 
you  have  got  to  pay  to  the  uttermost  farthing. 
That  is  the  only  forgiveness  known  in  nature. 
Nature  never  settles  unless  she  can  give  a  receipt 
in  full. 


The  Gods. 


t/ 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


Which  Way  ? 


Reunion 
Address. 


29 


Is  Suicide  a 
Sin? 


Is  Suicide  a 
Sin? 


/ 


\0^ 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


1    , 


Our  actions  are  the  fruit,  the  result,  of  cir- 
cumstances, of  conditions,  and  we  do  as  we  must. 
This  great  truth  should  fill  the  heart  with  pity 
for  the  failures  of  our  race. 

We  should  remember  that  nothing  happens 
but  the  natural.  Back  of  every  suicide  and  every 
attempt  to  commit  suicide  is  the  natural  and  effi- 
cient cause.  Nothing  happens  by  chance.  In  this 
world  the  facts  touch  each  other.  There  is  no 
space  between — no  room  for  chance.  Given  a 
certain  heart  and  brain,  certain  conditions,  and 
suicide  is  the  necessary  result.  If  we  wish  to  pre- 
vent suicide  we  must  change  conditions.  We 
must  by  education,  by  invention,  by  art,  by  civil- 
ization, add  to  the  value  of  the  average  life.  We 
must  cultivate  the  brain  and  heart  —  do  away 
with  false  pride  and  false  modesty.  We  must 
become  generous  enough  to  help  our  fellows 
without  degrading  them.  We  must  make  in- 
dustry—  useful  work  of  all  kinds  —  honorable. 
We  must  mingle  a  little  affection  with  our  charity 
—  a  little  fellowship.  We  should  allow  those 
who  have  sinned  to  really  reform.  We  should 
not  think  only  of  what  the  wicked  have  done, 
but  we  should  think  of  what  we  have  wanted  to 
do.  People  do  not  hate  the  sick.  Why  should 
they  despise  the  mentally  weak,  the  diseased  in 
brain  ? 

The  present  moment  is  the  child,  and  the 
necessary  child,  of  all  the  past. 

If  a  man  puts  his  hand  in  the  fire  and  God 
forgives  him,  his  hand  will  smart  exactly  the  same. 


3° 


All  mistakes  in  nature  have  to  be  paid  for. 
And  not  only  do  you  pay  for  your  mistake  itself, 
but  you  pay  at  least  ten  per  cent  compound  in- 
terest. Whenever  you  do  wrong,  and  nobody 
finds  it  out,  do  not  imagine  you  have  gotten  over 
it ;  you  have  not.    Nature  knows  it. 

That  which  has  not  happened,  could  not. 
The  present  is  the  necessary  product  of  all  the 
past,  the  necessary  cause  of  all  the  future.  In  the 
infinite  chain  there  is,  and  there  can  be,  no  broken, 
no  missing  link.  The  form  and  motion  of  every 
star,  the  climate  of  every  world,  all  forms  of 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  all  instinct,  intelligence 
and  conscience,  all  assertions  and  denials,  all 
vices  and  virtues,  all  thoughts  and  dreams,  all 
hopes  and  fears,  are  necessities.  Not  one  of  the 
countless  things  and  relations  in  the  universe 
could  have  been  different. 

Consequences  determine  the  quality  of  an 
action.  If  consequences  are  good,  so  is  the  action. 
If  actions  had  no  consequences,  they  would  be 
neither  good  nor  bad.  Man  did  not  get  his 
knowledge  of  the  consequences  of  actions  from 
God,  but  from  experience  and  reason. 


Reunion 
Address. 


What  Is 
Religion  t 


,W 


The  Christian 
Religion. 


(S 


31 


NATURE 

Nature  is  but  an  endless  series  of  efficient 
causes.  She  cannot  create,  but  she  eternally 
transforms.  There  was  no  beginning,  and  there 
can  be  no  end. 


The  Gods. 


I' 


A  deity  outside  of  Nature  exists  in  nothing, 
and  is  nothing.  Nature  embraces  with  infinite 
arms  all  matter  and  all  force.  That  which  is  be- 
yond her  grasp  is  destitute  of  both,  and  can 
hardly  be  worth  the  worship  and  adoration  even 
of  a  man. 


The  Gods. 

I 


The  Gods. 


Nature,  so  far  as  we  can  discern,  without  pas- 
sion and  without  intention,  forms,  transforms,  and 
retransforms  forever.  She  neither  weeps  nor 
rejoices.  She  produces  man  without  purpose,  and 
obliterates  him  without  regret.  She  knows  no 
distinction  between  the  beneficial  and  the  hurtful. 
Poison  and  nutrition,  pain  and  joy,  life  and  death, 
smiles  and  tears,  are  alike  to  her.  She  is  neither 
merciful  nor  cruel.  She  cannot  be  flattered  by 
worship  nor  melted  by  tears.  She  does  not  know 
even  the  attitude  of  prayer.  She  appreciates  no 
difference  between  poison  in  the  fangs  of  snakes 
and  mercy  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Only  through 
man  does  nature  take  cognizance  of  the  good, 
the  true,  and  the  beautiful ;  and,  so  far  as  we 
know,  man  is  the  highest  intelligence. 

Beyond  nature  man  cannot  go  even  in  thought ; 
above  nature  he  cannot  rise  ;  below  nature  he 
cannot  fall. 


32 


Nature  never  prompted  a  loving  mother  to 
throw  her  child  into  the  Ganges. 

I  will  leave  my  dead  where  nature  leaves 
them. 

Knowledge  consists  in  ascertaining  the  laws 
of  nature. 

In  nature  I  see,  or  seem  to  see,  good  and 
evil,  intelligence  and  ignorance,  goodness  and 
cruelty,  care  and  carelessness,  economy  and  waste. 
I  see  means  that  do  not  accomplish  the  ends, 
designs  that  seem  to  fail. 

Nature  cares  neither  for  smiles  nor  tears,  for 
life  nor  death,  the  sun  shines  as  gladly  on  coffins 
as  on  cradles. 

The  universe  is  all  there  is,  or  was,  or  will 
be.  It  is  both  subject  and  object,  contemplator 
and  contemplated;  creator  and  created;  destroyer 
and  destroyed;  preserver  and  preserved,  and  hath 
within  itself  all  causes,  modes,  motions,  and  effects. 

Matter  and  force  were  not  created.  They 
have  existed  from  eternity.  They  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed. 

When  w„e  abandon  the  doctrine  that  some 
infinite  being  created  matter  and  force,  and  en- 
acted a  code  of  laws  for  their  government,  the 
idea  of  interference  will  be  lost.  The  real  priest 
will  then  be,  not  the  mouth-piece  of  some  pre- 
tended deity,  but  the  interpreter  of  nature. 


Heretics  and 
Heresies. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 
Saved? 


On  Humboldt, 


Why  I  Am 
an  Agnostic. 


\n  jlvr, 

J 


On 

Shakespeare. 


Btntdict 
Spinoza. 


Why  I  Am 
an  Agnostic. 


The  Gods.  , 

A 


v-C 


33 


Some  Reasons 
Why. 


Hoiv 

to  Reform 
Mankind. 


What  Is 

Religion  ? 


Hoiv 
to  Reform 
Mankind. 


Reply  to  the 

Indianapolis 

Clergy. 


In  nature  there  are  neither  rewards  nor 
punishments — there  are  consequences. 

Nature,  generous  and  heartless,  extravagant 
and  miserly  as  she  is,  is  our  mother  and  our  only- 
teacher,  and  she  is  also  the  deceiver  of  men. 

Failure  seems  to  be  the  trademark  of  Nature. 
Why?  Nature  has  no  design,  no  intelligence. 
Nature  produces  without  purpose,  sustains  with- 
out intention  and  destroys  without  thought. 
Man  has  a  little  intelligence,  and  he  should  use 
it.  Intelligence  is  the  only  lever  capable  of 
raising  mankind. 

Every  flower  that  gives  its  fragrance  to  the 
wandering  air,  leaves  its  influence  on  the  soul  of 
man.  The  wheel  and  swoop  of  the  winged  crea- 
tures of  the  air  suggest  the  flowing  lines  of  subtle 
art.  The  roar  and  murmur  of  the  restless  sea, 
the  cataract's  solemn  chant,  the  thunder's  voice, 
the  happy  babble  of  the  brook,  the  whispering 
leaves,  the  thrilling  notes  of  mating  birds,  the 
sighing  winds,  taught  man  to  pour  his  heart  in 
song,  and  gave  a  voice  to  grief  and  hope,  to  love 
and  death. 

How  do  you  account  for  chemistry?  How  do 
you  account  for  the  fact  that  just  so  many  parti- 
cles of  one  kind  seek  the  society  of  just  so  many 
particles  of  another,  and  when  they  meet  they 
instantly  form  a  glad  and  lasting  union?  How  do 
you  know  but  atoms  have  love  and  hatred?  How 
do  you  know  that  the  vegetable  does  not  enjoy 
growing,  and  that  crystallization  itself  is  not  an 


34 


expression  of  delight?  How  do  you  know  that 
a  vine  bursting  into  flower  does  not  feel  a  thrill  ? 
We  find  sex  in  the  meanest  weeds, — how  can 
you  say  that  they  have  no  love  ? 

You  know  just  as  well  as  I  that  the  forces  of 
nature  produce  the  good  and  bad  alike.  You 
know  that  the  forces  of  nature  destroy  the  good 
and  bad  alike.  You  know  that  the  lightning 
feels  the  same  keen  delight  in  striking  to  death 
the  honest  man  that  it  does  or  would  in  striking 
the  assassin  with  his  knife  lifted  above  the  bosom 
of  innocence. 


To  Henry  M. 
Field,  D.  D. 


Nature  invites  into  this  world  every  babe 
that  is  born.  And  what  would  you  think  of  me, 
for  instance,  tonight,  having  invited  you  here  — 
nobody  had  charged  you  anything,  but  you  had 
been  invited  —  and  when  you  got  here  you  had 
found  one  man  pretending  to  occupy  one  hundred 
seats,  another  fifty,  and  another  seventy-five,  and 
thereupon  you  were  compelled  to  stand  up, — 
what  would  you  think  of  the  invitation  ?  It  seems 
to  me  that  every  child  of  nature  is  entitled  to  a 
share  of  the  land,  and  that  he  should  not  be  com- 
pelled to  beg  the  privilege  to  work  the  soil,  of 
a  babe  that  happened  to  be  born  beforehand. 


A  Lay  Sermon. 


2S 


I&H  Cfje  $f)tlo$opf)p  of  Sngergoll 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


What  Must 

We  Do  to  Be 

Saved  ? 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


On   Working 
Girls. 


MAN  AND  WOMAN 

The  grandest  ambition  that  any  man  can 
possibly  have,  is  to  so  live  and  so  improve  him- 
self in  heart  and  brain  as  to  be  worthy  of  the 
love  of  some  splendid  woman ;  and  the  grandest 
ambition  of  any  girl  is  to  make  herself  worthy  of 
the  love  and  adoration  of  some  magnificent  man. 

In  my  judgment,  the  woman  is  the  equal  of 
the  man.  She  has  all  the  rights  I  have,  and  one 
more,  and  that  is  the  right  to  be  protected.  That 
is  my  doctrine. 

"Man"  and  "woman"  are  the  highest  titles 
that  can  be  bestowed  upon  humanity. 

The  marriage  of  the  one  man  to  the  one 
woman  is  the  citadel  and  fortress  of  civilization. 

Nothing  can  be  more  marvelous  than  the 
common  and  every-day  facts  of  life.  The  phan- 
toms have  been  cast  aside.  Men  and  women  are 
enough  for  men  and  women.  In  their  lives  is 
all  the  tragedy  and  all  the  comedy  that  they  can 
comprehend. 

I  think  the  women  who  have  been  engaged 
in  the  struggle  for  equal  rights  have  done  good 
for  women  in  the  direction  of  obtaining  equal 
wages  for  equal  work.  There  has  also  been  for 
many  years  a  tendency  among  women  in  our 
country  to  become  independent  —  a  desire  to 
make  their  own  living,  to  win  their  own  bread. 


36 


I  think  that  women  should  have  clubs  and 
societies,  that  they  should  get  together  and  ex- 
change ideas.  Women,  as  a  rule,  are  provincial 
and  conservative. 

It  takes  a  hundred  men  to  make  an  en- 
campment, but  one  woman  can  make  a  home. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  said  in  this 
country  of  late  in  regard  to  giving  the  right  of 
suffrage  to  women.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned  I 
am  willing  that  every  woman  in  the  nation  who 
desires  that  privilege  and  honor  shall  vote.  If 
any  woman  wants  to  vote  I  am  too  much  of  a 
gentleman  to  say  she  shall  not.  She  gets  her 
right  if  she  has  it  from  precisely  the  same  source 
that  I  get  mine,  and  there  are  many  questions 
upon  which  I  would  deem  it  desirable  that 
women  should  vote,  especially  upon  the  question 
of  peace  or  war.  If  a  woman  has  a  child  to  be 
offered  upon  the  altar  of  that  Moloch,  a  hus- 
band liable  to  be  drafted,  and  who  loves  a  heart 
that  can  be  entered  by  the  iron  arrow  of  death, 
she  surely  has  as  much  right  to  vote  for  peace  as 
some  thrice-besotted  sot  who  reels  to  the  ballot- 
box  and  deposits  a  vote  for  war.  I  believe,  and 
always  have,  that  there  is  only  one  objection  to 
a  woman  voting,  and  that  is,  the  men  are  not 
sufficiently  civilized  for  her  to  associate  with 
them,  and  for  several  years  I  have  been  doing 
what  little  I  can  to  civilize  them. 

In  every  field  where  woman  has  become  a 
competitor  of  man  she  has  either  become,  or 
given  evidence  that  she  is  to  become,  his  equal. 


Woman  and 
Her  Domain. 


Woman. 


Suffrage 
Addrea. 


Woman  in 
Politics. 


37 


fVoman  in 
Politics. 


Interviews. 


Inter-vieivs. 


My  own  opinion  is  that  woman  is  naturally  the 
equal  of  man,  and  that  in  time,  that  is  to  say, 
when  she  has  had  the  opportunity  and  the  train- 
ing, she  will  produce  in  the  world  of  art  as  great 
pictures,  as  great  statutes,  and  in  the  world  of 
literature  as  great  books,  dramas  and  poems  as 
man  has  produced  or  will  produce. 

A  little  while  ago  the  literature  of  the 
world  was  produced  by  men,  and  men  were  not 
only  the  writers,  but  the  readers.  At  that  time 
the  novels  were  coarse  and  vulgar.  Now  the 
readers  of  fiction  are  women,  and  they  demand 
that  which  they  can  read,  and  the  result  is  that 
women  have  become  great  writers.  The  women 
have  changed  our  literature,  and  the  change  has 
been  good. 

You  need  not  go  back  four  thousand  years 
for  heroines.  The  world  is  filled  with  them  to- 
day. They  do  not  belong  to  any  nation,  nor  to 
any  religion,  nor  exclusively  to  any  race.  Wher- 
ever woman  is  found,  they  are  found. 

There  is  no  description  of  any  women  in 
the  Bible  that  equals  thousands  and  thousands  of 
women  known  today.  They  will  not  compare 
with  the  women  born  of  Shakespeare's  brain. 
You  will  find  none  like  Isabella,  in  whose  spot- 
less life,  love  and  reason  blended  into  perfect 
truth  ;  nor  Juliet,  within  whose  heart  passion  and 
purity  met,  like  white  and  red  within  the  bosom 
of  a  rose ;  nor  Cordelia,  who  chose  to  suffer  loss 
rather  than  show  her  wealth  of  love  with  those 
who  gilded  dross  with  golden  words  in  hope  of 


38 


gain ;  nor  Miranda,  who  told  her  love  as  freely 
as  a  flower  gives  its  bosom  to  the  kisses  of  the 
sun;  nor  Imogene,  who  asked:  "What  is  it  to 
be  false?"  nor  Hermione,  who  bore  with  perfect 
faith  and  hope  the  cross  of  shame,  and  who  at 
last  forgave  with  all  her  heart ;  nor  Desdemona, 
her  innocence  so  perfect  and  her  love  so  pure, 
that  she  was  incapable  of  suspecting  that  another 
could  suspect,  and  who  with  dying  words  sought 
to  hide  her  lover's  crime,  and  with  her  last  faint 
breath  uttered  a  living  lie  that  burst  into  a  per- 
fumed lily  between  her  pallid  lips. 

There  is  nothing  very  hard  to  understand  in 
the  politics  of  a  country.  The  general  princi- 
ples are  for  the  most  part  simple.  It  is  only  in 
the  application  that  the  complexity  arises,  and 
woman,  I  think,  by  nature,  is  as  well  fitted  to 
understand  these  things  as  man.  In  short,  I  have 
no  prejudice  on  this  subject.  At  first,  women 
will  be  more  conservative  than  men,  and  this  is 
natural.  Women  have,  through  many  generations, 
acquired  the  habit  of  submission,  of  acquiescence. 
They  have  practised  what  may  be  called  the  slave 
virtues  —  obedience,  humility  —  so  that  some 
time  will  be  required  for  them  to  become  accus- 
tomed to  the  new  order  of  things,  to  the  exercise 
of  greater  freedom,  acting  in  accordance  with 
perceived  obligation,  independently  of  authority. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  danger  of  women 
becoming  too  intellectual  or  knowing  too  much. 
Neither  is  there  any  danger  of  men  knowing  too 
much.  At  least,  I  know  of  no  men  who  are  in 
immediate  peril  from  that  source.    I  am  a  firm 


First 

Star-Route 

Trial. 


First 

Star-Routs 
Trial. 


39 


*l  ■!       I         I 


First 

Star-Route 

Trial. 


First 

Star-Route 

Trial. 


Trial  for 
Blasphemy . 


believer  in  the  equal  rights  of  human  beings,  and 
no  matter  what  I  think  as  to  what  woman  should 
or  should  not  do,  she  has  the  same  right  to  de- 
cide for  herself  that  I  have  to  decide  for  myself. 
If  women  wish  to  vote,  if  they  wish  to  take 
part  in  political  matters,  if  they  wish  to  run  for 
office,  I  shall  do  nothing  to  interfere  with  their 
rights.  I  most  cheerfully  admit  that  my  politi- 
cal rights  are  only  equal  to  theirs. 

I  think  the  influence  of  women  is  always 
good  in  politics,  as  in  everything  else.  I  think  it 
the  duty  of  every  woman  to  ascertain  what  she 
can  in  regard  to  her  country,  including  its  his- 
tory, laws  and  customs.  Woman  above  all  others 
is  a  teacher.  She,  above  all  others,  determines 
the  character  of  children  —  that  is  to  say,  of 
men  and  women. 

There  is  a  painting  in  the  Louvre,  a  paint- 
ing of  desolation,  of  despair  and  love.  It  repre- 
sents the  night  of  the  crucifixion.  The  world 
is  represented  in  shadow.  The  stars  are  dead, 
and  yet  in  the  darkness  is  seen  a  kneeling  form. 
It  is  Mary  Magdalene,  with  loving  lips  and  hands 
pressed  against  the  bleeding  feet  of  Christ.  The 
skies  were  never  dark  enough  nor  starless  enough ; 
the  storm  was  never  fierce  enough  nor  wild 
enough ;  the  quick  bolts  of  heaven  were  never 
lurid  enough,  and  arrows  of  slander  never  flew 
thick  enough  to  drive  a  noble  woman  from  her 
husband's  side. 

A  woman  whose  husband  has  gone  down  to 
the  gutter,  gone  down  to  degradation  and  filth ; 


4o 


the  woman  who  follows  him  and  lifts  him  out 
of  the  mire  and  presses  him  to  her  noble  heart, 
until  he  becomes  a  man  once  more,  this  woman 
is  a  worshiper.    Her  act  is  worship. 

Miss  Anthony  is  one  of  the  most  remarka- 
ble women  in  the  world.  She  has  the  enthusiasm 
of  youth  and  spring,  the  courage  and  sincerity 
of  a  martyr.  She  is  as  reliable  as  the  attraction 
of  gravitation.  She  is  absolutely  true  to  her  con- 
victions, intellectually  honest,  logical,  candid  and 
infinitely  persistent.  No  human  being  has  done 
more  for  woman  than  Miss  Anthony.  She  has 
won  the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  best  peo- 
ple on  the  earth.  And  so  I  say,  Good  luck  and 
long  life  to  Susan  B.  Anthony. 

The  affection  that  man  has  for  woman  is, 
in  my  judgment,  the  holiest  and  most  beautiful 
thing  in  nature;  the  affection  that  woman  has 
for  man  —  that  affection,  that  something  that  we 
call  love  —  has  done  all  there  is  of  value  in  the 
world.  It  has  civilized  mankind,  made  all  the 
poems,  painted  all  the  pictures,  and  composed  all 
the  music.  Take  it  from  the  world  and  we  will 
be  simply  wild  beasts  —  far  worse  than  wild 
beasts,  for  they  have  affection  for  each  other  and 
for  their  young. 

The  war  that  is  now  being  waged  against 
the  forces  of  evil  is  as  hopeless  as  the  battle  of 
the  fireflies  against  the  darkness  of  night. 

There  is  but  one  hope  —  ignorance,  poverty 
and  vice  must  stop  populating  the  world.    This 


A  Littlt  of 
Everything. 


Argument 
in  the 
Rutsell  Case. 


What  Is 
Religion  f 


What  Is 
Religion  f 


41 


What  Is 
Religion  t 


What  Is 
Religion  ? 


Interviews. 


cannot  be  done  by  moral  suasion.  This  cannot 
be  done  by  talk  or  example.  This  cannot  be 
done  by  religion  or  by  law,  by  priest  or  by  hang- 
man. This  cannot  be  done  by  force,  physical  or 
moral. 

To  accomplish  this  there  is  but  one  way  — 
science  must  make  woman  the  owner,  the  mis- 
tress of  herself.  Science,  the  only  possible  savior 
of  mankind,  must  put  it  in  the  power  of  woman 
to  decide  for  herself  whether  she  will  or  will 
not  become  a  mother. 

This  is  the  solution  of  the  whole  question. 
This  frees  woman.  The  babes  that  are  then  born 
will  be  welcome.  They  will  be  clasped  with  glad 
hands  to  happy  breasts.  They  will  fill  homes 
with  light  and  joy. 

I  have  infinite  respect  for  the  inventors,  the 
thinkers,  the  discoverers,  and,  above  all,  for  the 
unknown  millions  who  have,  without  the  hope 
of  fame,  lived  and  labored  for  the  ones  they 
loved. 


42 


MARRIAGE 

Ought  divorced  people  to  marry  ?  This  de- 
pends upon  whether  marriage  is  a  crime.  If  it 
is  not  a  crime,  why  should  any  penalty  be  at- 
tached ?  Can  any  one  conceive  of  any  reason  why 
a  woman  obtaining  a  divorce,  without  fault  on 
her  part,  should  be  compelled  as  a  punishment 
to  remain  forever  single?  Why  should  she  be 
punished  for  the  dishonesty  or  brutality  of  an- 
other ?  Why  should  a  man  who  faithfully  kept 
his  contract  of  marriage,  and  who  was  deserted 
by  an  unfaithful  wife,  be  punished  for  the  bene- 
fit of  society?  Why  should  he  be  doomed  to 
live  without  a  home? 

There  is  still  another  view.  We  must  re- 
member that  human  passions  are  the  same  after 
as  before  divorce.  To  prevent  marriage  is  to 
give  excuse  for  vice. 

The  real  marriage  is  back  of  the  ceremony, 
and  the  real  divorce  is  back  of  the  decree.  When 
love  is  dead,  when  husband  and  wife  abhor  each 
other,  they  are  divorced.  The  decree  records  in 
a  judicial  way  what  has  really  taken  place,  just 
as  the  ceremony  of  marriage  attests  a  contract 
already  made. 

Although  marriage  is  the  most  important 
and  the  most  sacred  contract  that  human  beings 
can  make,  still  when  that  contract  has  been  vio- 
lated, courts  should  have  the  power  to  declare  it 
null  and  void  upon  such  conditions  as  may  be  just. 


Is  Dii 


Wrong?        I 


Is  Divorce 
Wrong  t 


Is  Divorce 
Wrong  ? 


>/ 


Is  Divorce 
Wrong  f 


43 


Rome  or 
Reason. 


Rome  or 
Reason. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  highest  ideal  of  a  family  is  where  all 
are  equal,  where  love  has  superseded  authority, 
where  each  seeks  the  good  of  all,  and  where 
none  obey ;  where  no  religion  can  sunder  hearts, 
and  with  which  no  church  can  interfere. 

The  real  marriage  is  based  on  mutual  affec- 
tion ;  the  ceremony  is  but  the  outward  evidence 
of  the  inward  flame.  To  this  contract  there  are 
but  two  parties.  The  Church  is  an  impudent 
intruder.  Marriage  is  made  public  to  the  end 
that  the  real  contract  may  be  known,  so  that  the 
world  can  see  that  the  parties  have  been  actu- 
ated by  the  highest  and  holiest  motives  that  find 
expression  in  the  acts  of  human  beings.  The 
man  and  woman  are  not  joined  together  by  God, 
or  by  the  Church,  or  by  the  State. 

I  believe  in  marriage,  and  I  hold  in  utter 
contempt  the  opinions  of  those  long-haired  men 
and  short-haired  women  who  denounce  the  in- 
stitution of  marriage. 

It  took  millions  of  years  to  come  from  the 
condition  of  abject  slavery  up  to  the  condition 
of  marriage.  Ladies,  the  ornaments  you  wear 
upon  your  persons  tonight  are  but  the  souvenirs 
of  your  mothers'  bondage.  The  chains  around 
your  necks,  and  the  bracelets  clasped  upon  your 
white  arms  by  the  thrilled  hand  of  love,  have 
been  changed  by  the  wand  of  civilization  from 
iron  to  shining,  glittering  gold. 

You  are  married;  try  and  make  the  woman 
you  love  happy.     Whoever  marries  simply  for 


44 


H  ®ije  ^fjilofiopfjp  of  Sngersoll  B&l 


himself  will  make  a  mistake ;  but  whoever  loves 
a  woman  so  well  that  he  says,  "  I  will  make  her 
happy,"  makes  no  mistake.  And  so  with  the 
woman  who  says,  "  I  will  make  him  happy." 
There  is  only  one  way  to  be  happy,  and  that  is 
to  make  somebody  else  so,  and  you  cannot  be 
happy  by  going  across  lots;  you  have  got  to  go 
the  regular  turnpike  road. 

If  there  is  any  man  I  detest,  it  is  the  man 
who  thinks  he  is  the  head  of  the  family  —  the 
man  who  thinks  he  is  "boss"  ! 

Imagine  a  young  man  and  a  young  woman 
courting,  walking  out  in  the  moonlight,  and  the 
nightingale  singing  a  song  of  pain  and  love,  as 
though  the  thorn  touched  her  heart, — imagine 
them  stopping  there  in  the  moonlight  and  star- 
light and  song,  and  saying,  "Now,  here,  let  us 
settle  who  is  'boss' ! "  I  tell  you  it  is  an  infam- 
ous word  and  an  infamous  feeling.  I  abhor  a 
man  who  is  "boss,"  who  is  going  to  govern  in 
his  family,  and  when  he  speaks  orders  all  the 
rest  to  be  still  as  some  mighty  idea  is  about  to 
be  launched  from  his  mouth.  Do  you  know  I 
dislike  this  man  unspeakably? 

I  hate  above  all  things  a  cross  man.  What 
right  has  he  to  murder  the  sunshine  of  the  day  ? 
What  right  has  he  to  assassinate  the  glory  of 
life?  When  you  go  home  you  ought  to  go  like 
a  ray  of  light,  so  that  it  will,  even  in  the  night, 
burst  out  of  the  doors  and  windows  and  illumi- 
nate the  darkness.  Some  men  think  their  mighty 
brains  have  been  in  a  turmoil;  they  have  been 


45 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  fVoman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  IV oman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


thinking  about  who  will  be  alderman  from  the 
fifth  ward ;  they  have  been  thinking  about  poli- 
tics; great  and  mighty  questions  have  been  en- 
gaging their  minds ;  they  have  bought  calico  at 
five  cents  or  six  cents  and  want  to  sell  it  for 
seven  cents.  Think  of  the  intellectual  strain  that 
must  have  been  upon  that  man !  And  when  he 
gets  home  everybody  else  in  the  house  must  look 
out  for  his  comfort !  A  woman  who  has  only 
taken  care  of  five  or  six  children  —  and  one  or 
two  of  them  sick  —  who  has  been  nursing  them 
and  singing  to  them,  and  trying  to  make  one 
yard  of  cloth  do  the  work  of  two,  —  she,  of 
course,  is  fresh  and  fine  and  ready  to  wait  upon 
this  gentleman  —  the  head  of  the  family  —  the 
Boss! 


The  Liberty  of 
Many  Woman 
and  Child. 


Do   you  know  another  thing?     I    despise    a 
stingy  man. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


I  have  known  men  who  would  entrust  their 
wives  with  their  hearts  and  their  honor  but 
not  with  their  pocketbook  —  not  with  a  dollar. 
When  I  see  a  man  of  that  kind,  I  always  think 
he  knows  which  of  these  articles  is  the  most 
valuable.  Think  of  making  your  wife  a  beggar ! 
Think  of  her  having  to  ask  you  every  day  for  a 
dollar  or  for  two  dollars,  or  fifty  cents!  "What 
did  you  do  with  that  dollar  I  gave  you  last 
week?'  Think  of  having  a  wife  who  is  afraid 
of  you!  What  kind  of  children  do  you  expect 
to  have  with  a  beggar  and  a  coward  for  their 
mother  ?  Oh,  I  tell  you  if  you  have  but  a  dollar 
in  the  world,  and  you  have  to  spend  it,  spend  it 
like  a  king, —  spend  it  as  though  it  were  a  dry 


46 


leaf  and  you  the  owner  of  unbounded  forests ! 
That's  the  way  to  spend  it ! 

Get  the  best  you  can  for  your  family ;  try 
to  look  as  well  as  you  can  yourself.  When  you 
used  to  go  courting,  how  elegantly  you  looked ! 
Ah,  your  eye  was  bright,  your  step  was  light, 
and  you  looked  like  a  prince !  Do  you  know 
that  it  is  insufferable  egotism  in  you  to  suppose 
a  woman  is  going  to  love  you  always  looking  as 
slovenly  as  you  can?  Think  of  it!  Any  good 
woman  on  earth  will  be  true  to  you  forever 
when  you  do  your  level  best. 


The  Liberty  of 
Men,  IVoman 
and  Child, 


47 


LOVE 

Love  is  the  only  bow  on  Life's  dark  cloud. 
It  is  the  Morning  and  the  Evening  Star.  It  shines 
upon  the  cradle  of  the  babe,  and  sheds  its  radi- 
ance on  the  quiet  tomb.  It  is  the  mother  of 
Art,  inspirer  of  poet,  patriot  and  philosopher. 
It  is  the  air  and  light  of  every  heart,  builder 
of  every  home,  kindler  of  every  fire  on  every 
hearth.  It  was  the  first  to  dream  of  immortality. 
It  fills  the  world  with  melody,  for  Music  is  the 
voice  of  Love.  Love  is  the  magician,  the  en- 
chanter, that  changes  worthless  things  to  joy,  and 
makes  right  royal  kings  and  queens  of  common 
clay.  It  is  the  perfume  of  the  wondrous  flower 
—  the  heart  —  and  without  that  sacred  passion, 
that  divine  swoon,  we  are  less  than  beasts, —  but 
with  it,  earth  is  heaven  and  we  are  gods. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


There  is  no  success  in  life  without  love  and 
marriage.  You  had  better  be  the  emperor  of  one 
loving  and  tender  heart,  and  she  empress  of 
yours,  than  to  be  king  of  the  world. 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  Woman 

and  Child. 


The  meanest  hut  with  love  in  it  is  a  palace 
fit  for  the  gods,  and  a  palace  without  love  is  a 
den  only  fit  for  wild  beasts. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Good  nature  is  the  cheapest  commodity  in 
the  world ;  and  love  is  the  only  thing  that  will 
pay  ten  per  cent  to  both  borrower  and  lender. 


What  Musi 

Wt  Do  to  Be 

Saved? 


Intelligent   Self-love   embraces    within   its 
mighty  arms  all  the  human  race. 


48 


Love  and  Virtue  are  the  same  the  whole 
world  round,  and  Justice  is  the  same  in  every 
star. 


Some  Mistakes 
of  Moses. 


The  man  who  has  really  won  the  love  of  one 
good  woman  in  this  world,  I  do  not  care  if  he 
dies  a  beggar,  his  life  has  been  a  success. 

Love  is  not  of  any  country ;  nobility  does  not 
belong  exclusively  to  any  race ;  and  through  all 
the  ages,  there  have  been  a  few  great  and  tender 
souls  blossoming  in  love  and  pity. 

It  is  a  splendid  thing  to  think  that  the  wo- 
man you  really  love  will  never  grow  old  to  you. 
Through  the  wrinkles  of  time,  through  the 
mask  of  years,  if  you  really  love  her,  you  will 
always  see  the  face  you  have  loved  and  won. 
And  a  woman  who  really  loves  a  man  does  not 
see  that  he  grows  old;  he  is  not  decrepit  to  her; 
he  does  not  tremble ;  he  is  not  old  ;  she  always 
sees  the  same  gallant  gentleman  who  won  her 
hand  and  heart.  I  like  to  think  of  it  in  that 
way  —  I  like  to  think  that  love  is  eternal.  And 
to  love  in  that  way  and  then  go  down  the  hill 
of  life  together,  and  as  you  go  down,  hear,  per- 
haps, the  laughter  of  grandchildren,  while  the 
birds  of  joy  and  love  sing  once  more  in  the  leaf- 
less branches  of  the  tree  of  age! 

Man  is  strength,  woman  is  beauty;  man  is 
courage,  woman  is  love.  When  the  one  man 
loves  the  one  woman  and  the  one  woman  loves 
the  one  man,  the  very  angels  leave  heaven  and 
come  and  sit  in  that  house  and  sing  for  joy. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  fVoman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  IVoman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  IVoman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


49 


Wtyt  $i)ilogopf)p  of  Sngerstoll 


Some  Alistakes 
of  Moses. 

Woman '  s 
Right  to 
Di-vorce. 


Civilization  rests  upon  the  family. 

People  should  understand  that  men  and 
women  are  not  virtuous  by  law.  They  should 
comprehend  the  fact  that  law  does  not  create 
virtue  —  that  the  law  is  not  the  foundation,  the 
fountain  of  love.  They  should  understand  that 
love  is  in  the  human  heart,  and  that  real  love  is 
virtuous.  People  who  love  each  other  will  be 
true  to  each  other.  The  death  of  love  is  the 
commencement  of  vice. 


50 


HOME 

The  home  where  Virtue  dwells  with  Love  is 
like  a  lily  with  a  heart  of  fire  —  the  fairest  flower 
in  all  the  world. 

The  holiest  temple  beneath  the  stars  is  a 
home  that  Love  has  built.  And  the  holiest  altar 
in  all  the  wide  world  is  the  fireside  around  which 
gather  father  and  mother  and  the  sweet  babes. 

If  in  this  world  there  is  anything  splendid, 
it  is  a  home  where  all  are  equals. 

Around  the  fireside  cluster  the  private  and 
the  public  virtues  of  our  race. 

The  home,  after  all,  is  the  unit  of  civilization, 
of  good  government ;  and  to  secure  homes  for  a 
great  majority  of  our  citizens,  would  be  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  our  Government  deeper  and 
broader  and  stronger  than  that  of  any  nation 
that  has  existed  among  men. 

Without  the  family  relation  there  is  no  life 
worth  living.  Every  good  government  is  made 
up  of  good  families.  The  unit  of  good  govern- 
ment is  the  family,  and  anything  that  tends  to 
destroy  the  family  is  perfectly  devilish  and  in- 
famous. 

Nothing  is  more  important  to  America  than 
that  the  babes  of  America  should  be  born  around 
the  firesides  of  home. 


Some  Mistakes 
of  Moses. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 
Saved? 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


About 
Farming  in 

Illinois. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Hotv 

to  Reform 

Mankind. 


51 


On  Divorce. 


About 
Farming  in 

Illinois. 

Hoiv 
to  Reform 
Mankind. 


The  good  home  is  the  unit  of  good  govern- 
ment. The  hearthstone  is  the  corner-stone  of 
civilization.  Society  is  not  interested  in  the  pres- 
ervation of  hateful  homes.  It  is  not  to  the  in- 
terest of  society  that  good  women  should  be 
enslaved  or  that  they  should  become  mothers  by 
husbands  whom  they  hate. 

Homes  make  patriots. 

I  would  exempt  a  homestead  of  reasonable 
value,  say  of  the  value  of  two  or  three  thousand 
dollars,  not  only  from  sale  under  execution,  but 
from  sale  from  taxes  of  every  description, — these 
homes  should  be  absolutely  exempt ;  they  should 
belong  to  the  family,  so  that  every  mother  might 
feel  that  the  roof  above  her  head  was  hers ;  that 
her  house  was  her  castle,  and  that  in  its  posses- 
sion she  could  not  be  disturbed,  even  by  the 
nation.  Under  certain  conditions  I  would  allow 
the  sale  of  this  homestead,  and  exempt  the  pro- 
ceeds of  sale  for  a  certain  time,  during  which 
they  might  be  invested  in  another  home;  and 
all  this  could  be  done  to  make  a  nation  of  house- 
holders, a  nation  of  land-owners,  a  nation  of 
home-builders.  I  would  invoke  the  same  power 
to  preserve  these  homes,  and  to  acquire  these 
homes,  that  I  would  invoke  for  acquiring  lands 
for  building  railways.  Every  State  could  fix  the 
amount  of  land  that  could  be  owned  by  an  in- 
dividual, not  liable  to  be  taken  from  him  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  a  home  to  another ;  and  when 
any  man  owned  more  acres  than  the  law  allowed, 
and  another  should  ask  to  purchase  them,  and 
he  should  refuse,  I  would  have  the  law  so  that 


S2 


the  person  wishing  the  purchase  could  file  a 
petition  in  court.  The  Court  would  appoint 
commissioners,  or  a  jury  would  be  called,  to  de- 
termine the  value  of  the  land  the  petitioner 
wished  for  a  home,  and,  upon  the  amount  being 
paid,  found  by  such  commissioner,  or  jury,  the 
land  should  vest  absolutely  in  the  petitioner. 

I  believe  in  the  fireside.  I  believe  in  the 
democracy  of  home.  I  believe  in  the  republican- 
ism of  the  family.  I  believe  in  liberty,  equality 
and  love. 

If  upon  this  earth  we  ever  have  a  glimpse  of 
heaven,  it  is  when  we  pass  a  home  in  winter,  at 
night,  and  through  the  windows,  the  curtains 
drawn  aside,  we  see  the  family  about  the  pleasant 
hearth :  the  old  lady  knitting,  the  cat  playing 
with  the  yarn,  the  children  wishing  they  had 
as  many  dolls  or  dollars  or  knives  or  somethings 
as  there  are  sparks  going  out  to  join  the  roaring 
blast;  the  father  reading  and  smoking,  and  the 
clouds  rising  like  incense  from  the  altar  of  do- 
mestic joy.  I  never  passed  such  a  house  without 
feeling  that  I  had  received  a  benediction. 

Honor,  place,  fame,  glory,  riches  —  they  are 
ashes,  smoke,  dust,  disappointment,  unless  there 
is  somebody  in  the  world  you  love,  somebody 
who  loves  you;  unless  there  is  some  place  that 
you  can  call  home,  some  place  where  you  can 
feel  the  arms  of  children  around  your  neck,  some 
place  that  is  made  absolutely  sacred  by  the  love 
of  others. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  fVoman 
and  Child. 


Ratification 
Speech. 


53 


J 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  JVoman 
and  Child. 


About 
Farming  in 

Illinois. 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  Woman 

and  Child. 


CHILDREN 

The  children  have  the  same  rights  that  we 
have,  and  we  ought  to  treat  them  as  though  they 
were  human  beings. 

I  do  not  believe  in  the  government  of  the 
lash.  If  any  one  of  you  ever  expects  to  whip 
your  children  again,  I  want  you  to  have  a  pho- 
tograph taken  of  yourself  when  you  are  in  the 
act,  with  your  face  red  with  vulgar  anger,  and 
the  face  of  the  little  child,  with  eyes  swimming 
in  tears  and  the  little  chin  dimpled  with  fear, 
like  a  piece  of  water  struck  by  a  sudden  cold 
wind.  Have  the  picture  taken.  If  that  little 
child  should  die,  I  cannot  think  of  a  sweeter 
way  to  spend  an  autumn  afternoon  than  to  go  out 
to  the  cemetery,  when  the  maples  are  clad  in 
tender  gold,  and  little  scarlet  runners  are  coming, 
like  poems  of  regret,  from  the  sad  heart  of  the 
earth,  and  sit  down  upon  the  grave  and  look  at 
that  photograph,  and  think  of  the  flesh,  now 
dust,  that  you  beat. 

4 

A  blow  from  a  parent  leaves  a  scar  on  the 
soul.  I  should  feel  ashamed  to  die  surrounded  by 
children  I  had  whipped.  Think  of  feeling  upon 
your  dying  lips  the  kiss  of  a  child  you  had  struck  ! 

Imagine  a  man  who  deals  in  stocks  whipping 
his  boy  for  putting  false  rumors  afloat !  Think 
of  a  lawyer  beating  his  own  flesh  and  blood  for 
evading  the  truth  when  he  makes  half  of  his 
own  living  that  way ! 


54 


Men  are  oaks,  women  are  vines,  children 
are  flowers. 

If  the  poor  have  to  waken  their  children 
early  in  the  morning  it  is  as  easy  to  wake  them 
with  a  kiss  as  with  a  blow. 

When  your  child  commits  a  wrong,  take  it  in 
your  arms;  let  it  feel  your  heart  beat  against  its 
heart;  let  the  child  know  that  you  really  and 
truly  and  sincerely  love  it. 

I  say  to  my  children :  "  Go  where  you  will ; 
commit  what  crime  you  may ;  fall  to  what  depths 
of  degradation  you  may ;  you  can  never  commit 
any  crime  that  will  shut  my  door,  my  arms,  or 
my  heart  to  you.  As  long  as  I  live  you  shall 
have  one  sincere  friend." 

Call  me  infidel,  call  me  atheist,  call  me  what 
you  will,  I  intend  to  so  treat  my  children  that 
they  can  come  to  my  grave  and  truthfully  say : 
"He  who  sleeps  here  never  gave  us  a  moment 
of  pain.  From  his  lips,  now  dust,  never  came  to 
us  an  unkind  word." 

The  highest  test  of  civilization  is  the  treat- 
ment of  women  and  children.  By  this  standard 
America  stands  first  among  nations. 

Few  people  have  an  adequate  idea  of  the 
sufferings  of  women  and  children,  of  the  num- 
ber of  wives  who  tremble  when  they  hear  the 
footsteps  of  a  returning  husband,  of  the  number 
of  children  who  hide  when  they  hear  the  voice 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Is  Avarice 
Triumphant  i 


Is  Divorce 
Wrong  f 


55 


Some  Mistakes 
of  Moses. 


At  a  Child's 
Grave. 


At  a  Child's 
Grate. 


of  a  father.  Few  people  know  the  number 
of  blows  that  fall  on  the  flesh  of  the  helpless 
every  day,  and  few  know  the  nights  of  terror 
passed  by  mothers  who  hold  babes  to  their 
breasts. 

If  there  is  anything  in  this  poor  world  sug- 
gestive of,  and  standing  for,  all  that  is  sweet,  lov- 
ing and  pure,  it  is  a  mother  holding  in  her 
thrilled  and  happy  arms  her  prattling  babe. 

My  friends,  I  know  how  vain  it  is  to  gild  a 
grief  with  words,  and  yet  I  wish  to  take  from 
every  grave  its  fear.  Here  in  this  world,  where 
life  and  death  are  equal  kings,  all  should  be  brave 
enough  to  meet  what  all  the  dead  have  met. 
The  future  has  been  filled  with  fear,  stained  and 
polluted  by  the  heartless  past.  From  the  won- 
drous tree  of  life  the  buds  and  blossoms  fall  with 
ripened  fruit,  and  in  the  common  bed  of  earth, 
patriarchs  and  babes  sleep  side  by  side. 

Why  should  we  fear  that  which  will  come  to 
all  that  is?  We  cannot  tell,  we  do  not  know, 
which  is  the  greater  blessing  —  life  or  death. 
We  cannot  say  that  death  is  not  a  good.  We  do 
not  know  whether  the  grave  is  the  end  of  this 
life,  or  the  door  of  another,  or  whether  the  night 
here  is  not  somewhere  else  a  dawn.  Neither 
can  we  tell  which  is  the  more  fortunate  —  the 
child  dying  in  its  mother's  arms,  before  its  lips 
have  learned  to  form  a  word,  or  he  who  jour- 
neys all  the  length  of  life's  uneven  road,  pain- 
fully taking  the  last  slow  steps  with  staff  and 
crutch. 


Every  cradle  asks  us  "Whence?"  and  every 
coffin  "  Whither ?,;  The  poor  barbarian,  weep- 
ing above  his  dead,  can  answer  these  questions 
just  as  well  as  the  robed  priest  of  the  most  au- 
thentic creed.  The  tearful  ignorance  of  the  one 
is  as  consoling  as  the  learned  and  unmeaning 
words  of  the  other.  No  man,  standing  where  the 
horizon  of  a  life  has  touched  a  grave,  has  any 
right  to  prophesy  a  future  filled  with  pain  and 
tears. 

It  may  be  that  death  gives  us  all  there  is  of 
worth  to  life.  If  those  we  press  and  strain 
within  our  arms  could  never  die,  perhaps  love 
would  wither  from  the  earth.  And  I  had  rather 
live  and  love  where  death  is  king,  than  have 
eternal  life  where  love  is  not.  Another  life  is 
naught,  unless  we  know  and  love  again  the 
ones  who  love  us  here. 

They  who  stand  with  breaking  hearts  around 
this  little  grave  need  have  no  fear.  The  larger 
and  the  nobler  faith  in  all  that  is,  and  is  to  be, 
tells  us  that  death,  even  at  its  worst,  is  only  per- 
fect rest.  We  know  that  through  the  common 
wants  of  life  —  the  needs  and  duties  of  each 
hour — their  grief  will  lesson  day  by  day,  until 
at  last  this  grave  will  be  to  them  a  place  of  rest 
and  peace  —  almost  of  joy.  There  is  for  them 
this  consolation:  the  dead  do  not  suffer.  If 
they  live  again,  their  lives  will  surely  be  as  good 
as  ours.  We  have  no  fear.  We  are  all  children 
of  the  same  mother,  and  the  same  fate  awaits  us 
all.  We,  too,  have  our  religion,  and  it  is  this: 
Help  for  the  Living,  Hope  for  the  Dead. 


At  a  Child's 
Grave. 


At  a  Child's 
Grave. 


At  a  Child's 
Grave. 


57 


On   Working 
Girls. 


Hoiv 

to  Reform 
Mankind. 


EDUCATION 

The  great  trouble  with  the  public  school  is 
that  many  things  are  taught  that  are  of  no,* 
immediate  use.  I  believe  in  manual-training 
schools.  I  believe  in  the  kindergarten  system. 
Every  person  ought  to  be  taught  how  to  do 
something  —  ought  to  be  taught  the  use  of  their 
hands.  They  should  endeavor  to  put  in  palpa- 
ble form  the  ideas  that  they  gain.  Such  an 
education  gives  them  a  confidence  in  themselves, 
a  confidence  in  the  future  —  gives  them  a  spirit 
and  feeling  of  independence  that  they  do  not 
now  have. 

Children  should  be  taught  to  think,  to  in- 
vestigate, to  rely  upon  the  light  of  reason,  of 
observation  and  experience ;  should  be  taught 
to  use  all  their  senses ;  and  they  should  be  taught 
only  that  which  in  some  sense  is  really  useful. 
They  should  be  taught  to  use  tools,  to  use  their 
hands,  to  embody  their  thoughts  in  the  con- 
struction of  things.  Their  lives  should  not  be 
wasted  in  the  acquisition  of  the  useless,  or  of 
the  almost  useless.  Years  should  not  be  devoted 
to  the  acquisition  of  dead  languages,  or  to  the 
study  of  history  which,  for  the  most  part,  is  a 
detailed  account  of  things  that  never  occurred. 
It  is  useless  to  fill  the  mind  with  dates  of  great 
battles,  with  the  births  and  deaths  of  kings. 
They  should  be  taught  the  philosophy  of  history, 
the  growth  of  nations,  of  philosophies,  theories, 
and,  above  all,  of  the  sciences.  They  should  be 
taught  the  importance,  not  only  of  financial,  but 


58 


of  mental,  honesty ;  to  be  absolutely  sincere ;  to 
utter  their  real  thoughts,  and  to  give  their  act- 
ual opinions;  and  if  parents  want  honest  chil- 
dren, they  should  be  honest  themselves.  It  may 
be  that  hypocrites  transmit  their  failing  to  their 
offspring.  Men  and  women  who  pretend  to 
agree  with  the  majority,  who  think  one  way  and 
talk  another,  can  hardly  expect  their  children 
to  be  absolutely  sincere. 

There  was  an  idea  in  the  olden  time  —  and 
it  is  not  yet  dead  —  that  whoever  was  educated 
ought  not  to  work  —  that  he  should  use  his  head 
and  not  his  hands.  Graduates  were  ashamed  to 
be  found  engaged  in  manual  labor,  in  ploughing 
fields,  in  sowing  or  in  gathering  grain.  To  this 
manly  kind  of  independence  they  preferred  the 
garret  and  the  precarious  existence  of  an  unap- 
preciated poet,  borrowing  their  money  from 
their  friends,  and  their  ideas  from  the  dead. 
The  educated  regarded  the  useful  as  degrading, — 
they  were  willing  to  stain  their  souls  to  keep 
their  hands  white. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


The  object  of  all  education  should  be  to  in- 
crease the  usefulness  of  man  —  usefulness  to  him- 
self and  others.  Every  human  being  should  be 
taught  that  his  first  duty  is  to  take  care  of  him- 
self, and  that  to  be  self-respecting  he  must  be 
self-supporting.  To  live  on  the  labor  of  others, 
either  by  force  which  enslaves,  or  by  cunning 
which  robs,  or  by  borrowing  or  begging,  is 
wholly  dishonorable.  Every  man  should  be 
taught  some  useful  art.  His  hands  should  be  edu- 
cated as  well  as  his  head.     He  should  be  tcught 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


59 


Hoio 
to  Reform 
Mankind. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


A  Word 

About 
Education. 


Our  Schools. 


to  deal  with  things  as  they  are  —  with  life  as  it 
is.  This  would  give  a  feeling  of  independence, 
which  is  the  firmest  foundation  of  honor,  of 
character.  Every  man  knowing  that  he  is  use- 
ful, admires  himself. 

Nothing  should  be  taught  in  any  school  that 
the  teacher  does  not  know.  Beliefs,  supersti- 
tions, theories,  should  not  be  treated  like  demon- 
strated facts.  The  child  should  be  taught  to  in- 
vestigate, not  to  believe.  Too  much  doubt  is 
better  than  too  much  credulity.  So,  children 
should  be  taught  that  it  is  their  duty  to  think 
for  themselves,  to  understand,  and,  if  possible, 
to  know. 

For  the  most  part,  colleges  are  places  where 
pebbles  are  polished  and  diamonds  are  dimmed. 

The  man  who  is  fitted  to  take  care  of  him- 
self, in  all  the  conditions  in  which  he  may  be 
placed,  is,  in  a  very  important  sense,  an  educated 
man.  The  savage  who  understands  the  habits  of 
animals,  who  is  a  good  hunter  and  fisher,  is  a 
man  of  education,  taking  into  consideration  his 
circumstances.  The  graduate  of  a  university  who 
cannot  take  care  of  himself — no  matter  how 
much  he  may  have  studied — is  not  an  educated 
man. 

I  believe  that  the  common  school  is  the 
bread  of  life,  and  all  should  be  commanded  to  eat 
of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  knowledge.  It  would 
have  been  far  better  to  have  expelled  those  who 
refused  to  eat. 


60 


WM  &tje  $f)tlos;optjp  of  SngersoU  BAB 


It  is  far  cheaper  to  build  schoolhouses  than 
prisons,  and  it  is  much  better  to  have  scholars 
than  convicts. 

The  kindergarten  system  should  be  en- 
couraged, especially  for  the  young;  attending 
school  is  then  a  pleasure;  the  children  do  not 
run  away  from  school,  but  to  school.  We  should 
educate  the  children  not  simply  in  mind,  but 
educate  their  eyes  and  hands,  and  they  should 
be  taught  something  that  will  be  of  use,  that 
will  help  them  to  make  a  living,  that  will  give 
them  independence,  confidence — that  is  to  say, 
character. 

There  is  another  thing:  teachers  are  poorly 
paid.  Only  the  best  should  be  employed,  and 
they  should  be  well  paid.  Men  and  women  of 
the  highest  character  should  have  charge  of  the 
children,  because  there  is  a  vast  deal  of  educa- 
tion in  association,  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance that  the  children  should  associate  with 
real  gentlemen — that  is  to  say,  with  real  men; 
with  real  ladies — that  is  to  say,  with  real  women. 

Schoolhouses  are  the  real  temples,  and 
teachers  are  the  true  priests. 

The  Greatest  danger  to  the  Republic  is 
ignorance.  Intelligence  is  the  foundation  of  free 
government. 

The  cost  of  the  schools  is  very  little,  and  the 
cost  of  land — giving  the  children,  as  I  said  be- 
fore, air  and  light  —  would  amount  to  nothing. 


61 


Our  Schools. 


Our  Schools, 


Our  Schools. 


Myth  and 
Miracle, 


Our  Schools. 


Our  Schools. 


A  Word 

About 

Education. 


So  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is, 
that  he  is  educated  who  knows  how  to  care  for 
himself;  and  that  the  happy  man  is  the  success- 
ful man;  and  that  it  is  only  a  burden  to  have 
more  than  you  want,  or  to  learn  those  things 
that  you  cannot  use. 


62 


INTELLIGENCE 

In  nature  there  are  opposing  forces.  Some  of 
the  forces  work  for  what  man  calls  good;  some 
for  what  he  calls  evil.  Back  of  these  forces  our 
ancestors  put  will,  intelligence  and  design. 

Give  me  the  storm  and  tempest  of  thought 
and  action,  rather  than  the  dead  calm  of  ignor- 
ance and  faith !  Banish  me  from  Eden  when  you 
will,  but  first  let  me  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree 
of  knowledge ! 

Out  on  the  intellectual  sea  there  is  room 
enough  for  every  sail. 

Intelligence  must  be  the  savior  of  this 
world. 

There  is  in  the  intellectual  world,  as  in  the 
physical,  decay  and  growth,  and  ever  by  the  grave 
of  buried  Age  stand  Youth  and  Joy. 

Some  have  contended  that  everything  is  spirit ; 
others  that  everything  is  matter;  and,  again, 
others  have  maintained  that  a  part  is  matter  and 
a  part  is  spirit;  some  that  spirit  was  first  and 
matter  after;  others  that  matter  was  first  and 
spirit  after;  and  others  that  matter  and  spirit 
have  existed  together. 

But  none  of  these  people  can  by  any  possi- 
bility tell  what  matter  is,  or  what  spirit  is,  or 
what  the  difference  is  between  spirit  and  matter. 


63 


The  Devil. 


The  Gods. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 
Saved  f 


On  Voltaire. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


Hoiv 
to  Reform 
Mankind. 


Some 

Interrogation 

Points. 


Some 

Interrogation 

Points. 


Few  men  have  intelligence  enough,  real  great- 
ness enough,  to  own  a  great  fortune.  As  a  rule, 
the  fortune  owns  them.  Their  fortune  is  their 
master,  for  whom  they  work  and  toil  like  slaves. 
The  man  who  has  a  good  business  and  who  can 
make  a  reasonable  living  and  lay  aside  some- 
thing for  the  future,  who  can  educate  his  chil- 
dren and  can  leave  enough  to  keep  the  wolf  of 
want  from  the  door  of  those  he  loves,  ought  to 
be  the  happiest  of  men. 

Is  man  involved  in  the  "general  scheme"  of 
things?  Is  there  no  pity,  no  mercy?  Can  man 
become  intelligent  enough  to  be  generous,  to  be 
just,  or  does  the  same  law  or  fact  control  him 
that  controls  the  animal  world?  The  great  oak 
steals  the  sunlight  from  the  smaller  trees.  The 
strong  animals  devour  the  weak;  everything  eats 
something  else;  each  is  at  the  mercy  of  beak,  or 
claw,  or  hoof,  or  tooth — of  hand  and  club — 
of  brain  and  greed:  inequality,  injustice  every- 
where. 

The  poor  horse  standing  in  the  street  with 
his  dray — overworked,  overwhipped,  and  under- 
fed— when  he  sees  other  horses  groomed  to 
mirrors,  glittering  with  gold  and-silver,  scorning 
with  proud  feet  the  very  earth,  probably  in- 
dulges in  the  usual  socialistic  reflections;  and  this 
same  horse,  worn  out  and  old,  deserted  by  his 
master,  turned  into  the  dusty  road,  leans  his  head 
on  the  topmost  rail,  looks  at  donkeys  in  a  field 
of  clover,  and  feels  like  a  Nihilist. 


64 


E£H  GTfje  |3f)ilos;opl)p  of  Sngersioll  B&i 


TRUTH 

To  love  the  truth  is  mental  virtue — intel- 
lectual purity.    This  is  true  manhood. 

Every  man  should  be  true  to  himself — true 
to  the  inward  light.  Each  man,  in  the  labora- 
tory of  his  own  mind,  and  for  himself  alone, 
should  test  the  so-called  facts  —  the  theories  of 
all  the  world.  Truth,  in  accordance  with  his  rea- 
son, should  be  his  guide  and  master. 

Beauty  is  not  all  there  is  of  poetry.  It  must 
contain  the  truth. 

The  man  who  finds  a  truth  lights  a  torch. 

Truth  gives  man  the  greatest  power  for 
good.  Truth  is  sword  and  shield.  It  is  the 
sacred  light  of  the  soul. 

Truth  is  the  mother  of  Joy.  Truth  civil- 
izes, ennobles,  and  purifies.  The  grandest  ambi- 
tion that  can  enter  the  soul  is  to  know  the  truth. 

In  the  world  of  thought,  majorities  count 
for  nothing.  Truth  has  always  dwelt  with  the 
few. 

In  every  college  Truth  should  be  a  welcome 
guest. 

He  who  attempts  to  ridicule  the  truth,  ridi- 
cules himself. 


65 


The  Truth. 


The  Truth. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


The  Truth. 


The  Truth. 


The  Truth. 


Field- Ingersoll 
Discussion. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


On  Voltaire. 


The   Truth. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


The   Truth. 


The  Truth. 


The  Ghosts. 


Orthodoxy. 


Progress. 


The  Oath 
Question. 


Truth  is  the  intellectual  wealth  of  the  world. 

Around   the  oak  of  truth  runs  the   vine   of 
beauty. 

The  noblest  of  occupations  is  to  search  for 
truth. 

Truth  is  the  foundation,  the  superstructure, 
and  the  glittering  dome  of  progress. 

Free  thought  will  give  us  truth. 

Everything  except  the  demonstrated  truth 
is  liable  to  die. 

Truth  is  neither  young  nor  old,  it  is  neither 
ancient  nor  modern,  but  it  is  the  same  for  all 
times  and  places  and  should  be  sought  for  with 
ceaseless  activity,  eagerly  acknowledged,  loved 
more  than  life,  and  abandoned — never.  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  idea  that  labor  is  the  basis  of 
all  prosperity  and  happiness,  is  another  idea  or 
truth,  and  that  is,  that  labor  in  order  to  make 
the  laborer  and  the  world  at  large  happy,  must 
be  free.  That  the  laborer  must  be  a  free  man, 
the  thinker  must  be  free. 

The  truth,  plainly  told,  naturally  com- 
mends itself  to  the  intelligence.  Every  fact  is  a 
genuine  link  in  the  infinite  chain,  and  will  agree 
perfectly  with  every  other  fact.  A  fact  asks  to 
be  inspected,  asks  to  be  understood.  It  needs  no 
oath,  no  ceremony,  no  supernatural  aid.  It  is 
independent  of  all  the  gods. 


66 


JUSTICE 


The  rights  of  all  are  equal.  Justice,  poised 
and  balanced  in  eternal  calm,  will  shake  from 
the  golden  scales,  in  which  are  weighed  the  acts 
of  men,  the  very  dust  of  prejudice  and  caste. 
No  race,  no  color,  no  previous  condition,  can 
change  the  rights  of  man. 

If  this  is  not  now  a  free  Government,  if 
citizens  cannot  now  be  protected,  regardless  of 
race  or  color,  if  the  three  sacred  amendments 
have  been  undermined  by  the  Supreme  Court, 
we  must  have  another;  and  if  that  fails,  then 
another;  and  we  must  neither  stop,  nor  pause, 
until  the  Constitution  shall  become  a  perfect 
shield  for  every  right,  of  every  human  being, 
beneath  our  flag. 

There  is  but  one  blasphemy,  and  that  is  in- 
justice. There  is  but  one  worship,  and  that  is 
justice! 

When  all  men  give  to  all  others  all  the  rights 
they  claim  for  themselves,  this  world  will  be 
civilized. 

God  cannot  afford  to  damn  a  man  in  the 
next  world  who  has  made  a  family  happy  in 
this. 

The  schoolhouse  is  my  cathedral.  The  uni- 
verse is  my  bible.  I  believe  in  that  gospel  of 
justice,  that  we  must  reap  what  we  sow. 


67 


Centennial 
Oration. 


Civil  Rights. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 
&a<vcd  f 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Orthodoxy. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 

Saved  f 


The 
Limitations  of 
Toleration. 


Orthodoxy. 


The  Munn 
Trial. 


The  Munn 
Trial. 


Which  Way? 


Give  to  every  other  human  being  every  right 
that  you  claim  for  yourself. 

Virtue  is  of  no  color;  kindness,  justice  and 
love,  of  no  complexion. 

Were  it  not  for  sympathy,  the  idea  of  justice 
never  would  have  entered  the  human  brain. 
This  thing  called  Sympathy  is  the  mother  of 
Justice,  and  although  Justice  has  been  painted 
blind,  never  has  she  been  represented  as  heartless. 

There  is  no  more  sacred,  no  more  holy,  and 
no  purer  thing  than  what  you  and  I  call  sympa- 
thy, and  the  man  who  is  unsympathetic  is  not  a 
man.  The  white  breast  of  the  lily  is  filthy  as 
compared  to  the  human  heart  perfumed  with 
love  and  sympathy. 

When  the  sword  of  justice  becomes  a  staff 
to  support  the  weak,  it  bursts  into  blossom ;  and 
the  perfume  of  that  flower  is  the  only  incense, 
the  only  offering,  the  only  sacrifice  that  mercy 
will  accept. 


68 


SSI  €f)t  |3f)ilosopf)?  of  Sngcissoll  B&B 


PREJUDICE 

Prejudice  is  born  of  ignorance  and  malice. 
One  of  the  greatest  men  of  this  country  said 
prejudice  is  the  spider  of  the  mind.  It  weaves 
its  web  over  every  window  and  over  every  crevice 
where  light  can  enter,  and  then  disputes  the 
existence  of  the  light  that  it  has  excluded.  That 
is  prejudice.  Prejudice  will  give  the  lie  to  all 
the  other  senses.  It  will  swear  the  northern  star 
out  of  the  sky  of  truth.  You  must  avoid  it.  It 
is  the  womb  of  injustice,  and  a  man  who  can- 
not rise  above  prejudice  is  not  a  civilized  man; 
he  is  simply  a  barbarian. 


First 

Star.  Routt 
Trial. 


69 


Myth  and 

Miracle. 


The  Liberty  of 
Man,  Woman 
and  Child. 


LIBERTY 

O  Liberty,  thou  art  the  god  of  my  idolatry ! 
Thou  art  the  only  deity  that  hateth  bended 
knees.  In  thy  vast  and  unwalled  temple,  beneath 
the  roofless  dome,  star-gemmed  and  luminous 
with  suns,  thy  worshipers  stand  erect!  They  do 
not  cringe,  or  crawl,  or  bend  their  foreheads  to 
the  earth.  The  dust  has  never  borne  the  im- 
press of  their  lips.  Upon  thy  altars  mothers  do 
not  sacrifice  their  babes,  no  men  their  rights. 
Thou  askest  naught  from  man  except  the  things 
that  good  men  hate  —  the  whip,  the  chain,  the 
dungeon  key.  Thou  hast  no  popes,  no  priests, 
who  stand  between  their  fellow  men  and  thee. 
Thou  carest  not  for  foolish  forms,  or  selfish 
prayers.  At  thy  sacred  shrine  Hypocrisy  does  not 
bow,  Virtue  does  not  tremble,  Superstition's  fee- 
ble tapers  do  not  burn,  but  Reason  holds  aloft 
her  inextinguishable  torch  whose  holy  light  will 
one  day  flood  the  world. 

There  has  never  been  upon  the  earth  a 
generation  of  free  men  and  women.  It  is  not 
yet  time  to  write  a  creed.  Wait  until  the  chains 
are  broken  —  until  dungeons  are  not  regarded  as 
temples.  Wait  until  solemnity  is  not  mistaken 
for  wisdom  —  until  mental  cowardice  ceases  to 
be  known  as  reverence.  Wait  until  the  living  are 
considered  the  equals  of  the  dead  —  until  the 
cradle  takes  precedence  of  the  coffin.  Wait  un- 
til what  we  know  can  be  spoken  without  regard 
to  what  others  may  believe.  Wait  until  teachers 
take   the   place   of   preachers  —  until    followers 


become  investigators.  Wait  until  the  world  is 
free  before  you  write  a  creed.  In  this  creed 
there  will  be  but  one  word:   Liberty. 

I  swear  that  while  I  live  I  will  do  what  lit- 
tle I  can  to  preserve  and  to  augment  the  liberties 
of  man,  woman  and  child. 

Liberty  sustains  the  same  relation  to  mind 
that  space  does  to  matter. 

There  is  but  one  excuse  for  government  — 
the  preservation  of  Liberty,  to  the  end  that  man 
may  be  happy. 

Liberty  is  the  jewel  of  the  soul. 

If  there  is  anything  of  value,  it  is  liberty  — 
liberty  of  body,  liberty  of  mind.  The  liberty  of 
body  is  the  reward  of  labor.  Intellectual  liberty 
is  the  air  of  the  soul,  the  sunshine  of  the  mind, 
and  without  it  the  world  is  a  prison,  the  universe 
a  dungeon. 

It  was  Voltaire  who  sowed  the  seeds  of 
liberty  in  the  heart  and  brain  of  Franklin,  of 
Jefferson,  and  Thomas  Paine. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  is  nobler 
far  than  all  the  utterances  from  Sinai's  cloud  and 
flame. 

It  is  far  better  to  be  free,  to  leave  the  forts 
and  barricades  of  fear,  to  stand  erect  and  face 
the  future  with  a  smile. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


The  Liberty  of 
Alan,  Woman 
and  Child. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


On  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

Some  Reasons 
Why. 


On  Voltaire. 


Myth  and 
Aliracle. 


What  Is 
Religion  f 


7» 


B&B  Cfje  ^fjtlogop})?  of  Sngcrsoll  H&B 


y^  Lay  Sermon. 


Suffrage 
Address. 


A  Lay  Sermon. 


The  Liberty  of 

Man,  Woman 

and  Child. 


This  is  no  country  for  anarchy,  no  country 
for  communism,  no  country  for  the  Socialist. 
Why?  Because  the  political  power  is  equally 
divided.  What  other  reason?  Speech  is  free. 
What  other?  The  press  is  untrammeled.  And 
that  is  all  that  the  right  should  ever  ask:  a  free 
press,  free  speech,  and  the  protection  of  person. 
That  is  enough. 

No  American  citizen  can  be  forced  to  pay  a 
dollar  in  a  State  or  in  the  district  where  he  lives 
who  is  not  represented  and  where  he  has  not  the 
right  to  vote.    It  is  all  tyranny,  and  all  infamous. 

So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  have  made  up 
my  mind  that  no  organization,  secular  or  relig- 
ious, shall  be  my  master.  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  that  no  necessity  of  bread,  or  roof,  or 
raiment  shall  ever  put  a  padlock  on  my  lips. 
I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  no  hope  of  pre- 
ferment, no  honor,  no  wealth,  shall  ever  make 
me  for  one  moment  swerve  from  what  I  really 
believe,  no  matter  whether  it  is  to  my  immedi- 
ate interest,  as  one  would  think,  or  not.  And 
while  I  live,  I  am  going  to  do  what  little  I  can 
to  help  my  fellow  men  who  have  not  been  as 
fortunate  as  I  have  been. 

I  know  not  what  discoveries,  what  inventions, 
what  thoughts,  may  leap  from  the  brain  of  the 
world.  I  know  not  what  garments  of  glory  may 
be  woven  by  the  years  to  come.  I  cannot  dream 
of  the  victories  to  be  won  upon  the  fields  of 
thought;  but  I  do  know,  that  coming  from  the 
infinite  sea  of  the  future,  there  will  never  touch 


72 


EM  Gtfje  $f)Uo<sopf)p  of  Sngcrsoll  MB 


this  "bank  and  shoal  of  time"  a  richer  gift,  a 
rarer  blessing  than  liberty  for  man,  for  woman 
and  for  child. 

I  am  a  free  man ;  I  will  do  my  own  thinking 
or  die.  I  give  a  mortgage  on  my  soul  to  nobody ; 
I  give  a  deed  of  trust  on  my  soul  to  nobody ; 
no  matter  whether  I  think  well  or  I  think  ill, 
whatever  thought  I  have  shall  be  my  thought, 
and  shall  be  a  free  thought,  and  I  am  going  to 
give  cheerfully,  gladly,  the  same  right  to  thus 
think  to  every  other  human  being. 

I  despise  any  man  who  does  not  own  him- 
self. I  despise  any  man  who  does  not  possess 
his  own  spirit.  I  would  rather  die  a  beggar 
covered  with  rags,  with  my  soul  erect,  fearless 
and  free,  than  to  live  a  king  in  a  palace  of  gold, 
clothed  with  the  purple  of  power,  with  my  soul 
slimy  with  hypocrisy,  crawling  in  the  dust  of 
fear.  I  will  do  my  own  thinking,  and  when  I 
get  it  thought,  will  say  it. 

I  belong  to  the  republic  of  intellectual  liberty, 
and  only  those  are  good  citizens  of  that  republic 
who  depend  upon  reason  and  upon  persuasion, 
and  only  those  are  traitors  who  resort  to  brute 
force. 

The  right  to  do  right  is  my  definition  of 
physical  liberty.  "  The  right  of  one  human  be- 
ing ends  where  the  right  of  another  begins.' 
My  definition  of  intellectual  liberty  is,  the  right 
to  think,  whether  you  think  right  or  wrong, 
provided  you  do  your  best  to  think  right. 


73 


New    York 
Speech. 


Neiv   York 
Speech. 


What  Must 
We  Do  to  Be 

Sa-ved  ? 


Afy  Reviewers 
Reviewed. 


On  Voltaire. 


Progress. 


Centennial 
Oration. 


Centennial 
Oration. 


There  is  but  one  use  for  law,  but  one  excuse 
for  government  —  the  preservation  of  liberty: 
to  give  to  each  man  his  own,  to  secure  to  the 
farmer  what  he  produces  from  the  soil,  the 
mechanic  what  he  invents  and  makes,  to  the 
artist  what  he  creates,  to  the  thinker  the  right 
to  express  his  thoughts.  Liberty  is  the  breath 
of  progress. 

On  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  the  grand- 
est New  Year  that  ever  dawned  upon  this  con- 
tinent, in  accordance  with  the  will  of  the  heroic 
North,  by  the  sublime  act  of  one  whose  name 
shall  be  sacred  through  all  the  coming  years,  the 
justice  so  long  delayed  was  accomplished,  and 
four  millions  of  slaves  became  chainless. 

I  have  had  the  supreme  pleasure  of  seeing  a 
man — once  a  slave — sitting  in  the  seat  of  his 
former  master  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  I  have  had  that  pleasure,  and  when  I 
saw  it  my  eyes  were  filled  with  tears.  I  felt 
that  we  had  carried  out  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence—  that  we  had  given  reality  to  it, 
and  breathed  the  breath  of  life  into  its  every 
word.  I  felt  that  our  flag  would  float  over  and 
protect  the  colored  man  and  his  little  children, 
standing  straight  in  the  sun,  just  the  same  as 
though  he  were  white  and  worth  a  million.  I 
would  protect  him  more,  because  the  rich  white 
man  could  protect  himself. 

Liberty:  Give  to  every  man  the  fruit  of  his 
own  labor  —  the  labor  of  his  hands  and  of  his 
brain. 


74 


All  who  stand  beneath  our  banner  are  free. 
Ours  is  the  only  flag  that  has  in  reality  written 
upon  it:  Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality  —  the 
three  grandest  words  in  all  the  languages  of  men. 

Liberty,  a  word  without  which  all  other 
words  are  vain. 


Centennial 
Oration. 


Heretics  and 
Heretics. 


75 


BAB  tKfje  $fjtlosopf)j>  of  iingersoll  BAB 


Blasphemy 
Trial. 


Blasphemy 
Trial. 


Blasphemy 
Trial. 


Blasphemy 
Trial. 


The 

Limitations  of 

Toleration. 


WORSHIP 

Whoever  increases  the  sum  of  human  joy  is  a 
worshiper.  He  who  adds  to  the  sum  of  human 
misery  is  a  blasphemer. 

Good,  honest,  faithful  work  is  worship.  The 
man  who  plows  the  fields  and  fells  the  forests; 
the  man  who  works  in  mines;  the  man  who 
battles  with  the  winds  and  waves  out  on  the  wide 
sea,  controlling  the  commerce  of  the  world  — 
these  men  are  worshipers. 

The  man  who  sits  by  the  bed  of  his  invalid 
wife,  and  holds  her  thin,  wan  hand  in  his  as 
lovingly,  and  kisses  it  as  rapturously,  as  when  it 
was  dimpled,  that  man  is  a  worshiper;  that  is 
real  religion. 

The  poor  man  and  woman  who  work  night 
and  day  to  educate  their  children;  the  parents 
who  deny  themselves  the  comforts  of  life  that 
they  may  lay  up  something  to  help  their  chil- 
dren to  a  higher  place, —  they  are  worshipers. 
And  the  children,  who,  after  they  reap  the 
benefit  of  this  worship,  become  ashamed  of  their 
parents,  are  blasphemers. 

Who  is  a  worshiper?  One  who  makes  a 
happy  home;  one  who  fills  the  lives  of  wife 
and  children  with  sunlight ;  one  who  has  a  heart 
where  the  flowers  of  kindness  burst  into  blossom 
and  fill  the  air  with  perfume. 


76 


B&B  Cije  $JJnlosopf)P  of  3nger*oll  B&g 


LABOR 

It  is  from  the  surplus  produced  by  labor 
that  schools  are  built,  that  colleges  and  univer- 
sities are  founded  and  endowed.  From  the  sur- 
plus the  painter  is  paid  for  the  immortal  produc- 
tions of  the  pencil.  This  pays  the  sculptor  for 
chiseling  the  shapeless  rock  into  forms  of  beauty 
almost  divine,  and  the  poet  for  singing  the 
hopes,  the  loves  and  aspirations  of  the  world. 

This  surplus  has  erected  all  the  palaces  and 
temples,  all  the  galleries  of  art,  has  given  us  all 
the  books  in  which  we  converse,  as  it  were, 
with  the  dead  kings  of  the  human  race,  and  has 
supplied  us  with  all  there  is  of  elegance,  of 
beauty  and  of  refined  happiness  in  the  world. 

We  should  remember  that  the  prosperity  of 
the  world  depends  upon  the  men  who  walk  in 
the  fresh  furrows  and  through  the  rustling  corn, 
upon  those  whose  faces  are  radiant  with  the 
glare  of  furnaces,  upon  the  delvers  in  dark 
mines,  the  workers  in  shops,  upon  those  who 
give  to  the  wintry  air  the  ringing  music  of  the 
axe,  and  upon  those  who  wrestle  with  the  wild 
waves  of  the  raging  sea. 

My  hope  for  the  working  man  has  its  foun- 
dation in  the  fact  that  he  is  growing  more  and 
more  intelligent.  I  have  also  the  same  hope  for 
the  capitalist.  The  time  must  come  when  the 
capitalist  will  clearly  and  plainly  see  that  his  in- 
terests are  identical  with  those  of  the  laboring 


77 


Progress. 


Progress. 


Progress. 


Progress. 


Eight  Hours 
Must  Come. 


man.  He  will  finally  become  intelligent  enough 
to  know  that  his  prosperity  depends  on  the  pros- 
perity of  those  who  labor.  When  both  become 
intelligent  the  matter  will  be  settled. 

Neither  labor  nor  capital  should  resort  to 
force. 


About 

Farming  in 

Illinois. 


Eight  Hours 
Must  Come. 


Nothing  can  be  nobler  than  to  be  useful. 
Idleness  should  not  be  respectable. 

All  my  sympathies  are  on  the  side  of  those 
who  toil,  of  those  who  produce  the  real  wealth 
of  the  world,  of  those  who  carry  the  burdens  of 
mankind. 


Labor 

Question  and 

Socialism. 


I  am  in  sympathy  with  laboring  men  of  all 
kinds,  whether  they  labor  with  hand  or  brain. 
The  Knights  of  Labor,  I  believe,  do  not  allow 
a  lawyer  to  become  a  member.  I  am  somewhat 
wider  in  my  sympathies.  No  men  in  the  world 
struggle  more  heroically;  no  men  in  the  world 
have  suffered  more,  or  carried  a  heavier  cross, 
or  worn  a  sharper  crown  of  thorns,  than  those 
who  have  produced  what  we  call  the  literature 
of  our  race.  So  my  sympathies  extend  all  the 
way  from  hod-carriers  to  sculptors ;  from  well- 
diggers  to  astronomers.  If  the  objects  of  the 
laboring  men  are  to  improve  their  condition 
without  injuring  others;  to  have  homes  and  fire- 
sides, and  wives  and  children  ;  plenty  to  eat,  good 
clothes  to  wear ;  to  develop  their  minds,  to  edu- 
cate their  children  —  in  short,  to  become  pros- 
perous and  civilized,  I  sympathize  with  them 
and  hope  they  will  succeed. 


78 


B&B  ftfje  $Mjtlosapfjp  of  insersfoll  H&B 


Until  genius  and  labor  formed  a  partnership 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  prosperity  among 
men. 

Where  industry  creates  and  justice  protects, 
prosperity  dwells. 

There  must  be  something  nearer  a  fairer  di- 
vision in  this  world.  You  can  never  get  it  by 
strikes.  Never.  The  first  strike  that  is  a  great 
success  will  be  the  last/because  the  people  who 
believe  in  law  and  order  will  put  the  strikers 
down.  The  strike  is  no  remedy.  Boycotting  is 
no  remedy.  Brute  force  is  no  remedy.  These 
questions  have  to  be  settled  by  reason,  by  candor, 
by  intelligence,  by  kindness;  and  nothing  is  per- 
manently settled  in  this  world  that  has  not  jus- 
tice for  its  corner-stone,  and  is  not  protected  by 
the  profound  conviction  of  the  human  mind. 

Labor  is  the  only  prayer  that  Nature  answers; 
it  is  the  only  prayer  that  deserves  an  answer, — 
good,  honest,  noble  work. 

Any  man  who  wishes  to  force  his  brother  to 
work  —  to  toil  —  more  than  eight  hours  a  day  is 
not  a  civilized  man. 

I  hardly  know  enough  on  the  subject  to  give 
an  opinion  as  to  the  time  when  eight  hours  is  to 
become  a  day's  work,  but  I  am  perfectly  satisfied 
that  eight  hours  will  become  a  labor  day. 

No  man  should  be  allowed  to  own  any  land 
that  he  does  not  use. 


About 
Farming  in 
Illinois. 


About 
Farming  in 
Illinois. 


A  Lay  Sermon. 


Blasphemy 
Trial. 


Eight  Hours 
Must  Come. 


Eight  Hours 
Must  Come. 


A  Lay  Sermon. 


79 


Eight  Hours 
Must  Come. 


The  working  people  should  be  protected  by 
law;  if  they  are  not,  the  capitalists  will  require 
just  as  many  hours  as  human  nature  can  bear. 
We  have  seen  here  in  America  street-car  drivers 
working  sixteen  and  seventeen  hours  a  day.  It 
was  necessary  to  have  a  strike  in  order  to  get  to 
fourteen,  another  strike  to  get  to  twelve,  and  no- 
body can  blame  them  for  keeping  on  striking 
till  they  get  to  eight  hours. 


Eight  Hours 
Must  Come. 


For  a  man  to  get  up  before  daylight  and 
work  till  after  dark,  life  is  of  no  particular  im- 
portance. He  simply  earns  enough  one  day  to 
prepare  himself  to  work  another.  His  whole  life 
is  spent  in  want  and  toil,  and  such  a  life  is  with- 
out value. 


80 


SCIENCE 

The  glory  of  science  is,  that  it  is  freeing  the 
soul,  breaking  the  mental  manacles,  getting  the 
brain  out  of  bondage,  giving  courage  to  thought, 
filling  the  world  with  mercy,  justice  and  joy. 

Science  —  the  only  lever  capable  of  raising 
mankind. 

Science  is  the  providence  of  man,  the  worker 
of  true  miracles,  of  real  wonders. 

Science  teaches  us  that  there  was  no  creation 
and  that  there  can  be  no  destruction.  The  infi- 
nite denies  creation  and  defies  destruction.  An 
infinite  person,  an  "infinite  being,"  is  an  infinite 
impossibility.  To  conceive  of  such  a  being  is 
beyond  the  power  of  the  mind. 

This  century  will  be  called  Darwin's  century. 
He  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  who  ever 
touched  this  globe.  He  has  explained  more  of 
the  phenomena  of  life  than  all  of  the  religious 
teachers. 

A  belief  in  the  great  truths  of  science  are 
fully  as  essential  to  salvation  as  the  creed  of  any 
church. 

Science  has  read  the  records  of  the  rocks, — 
records  that  priestcraft  cannot  change, — and  on 
his  wondrous  scales  has  weighed  the  atom  and 
the  star. 


Humboldt. 


Humloldt. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


Orthodoxy. 


Some  Miitakei 
of  Aloses. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


81 


Some  Mistakes 
of  Moses. 

Interviews. 


Orthodoxy. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


Myth  and 
Miracle. 


Rome  or 
Reason. 


The  sciences  are  not  sectarian. 

After  all,  the  man  who  invented  the  tele- 
scope found  out  more  about  heaven  than  the 
closed  eyes  of  prayer  had  ever  discovered. 

Superstition  must  go.    Science  will  remain. 

Science  always  has  been,  is,  and  always  will 
be  modest,  thoughtful,  truthful.  It  has  but  one 
object — the  ascertainment  of  truth. 

Science  has  founded  the  only  true  religion. 
Science  is  the  only  redemption  of  this  world. 

Science  is  for  this  world,  for  the  use  of  man. 
It  is  perfectly  candid.  It  does  not  try  to  con- 
ceal, but  to  reveal.  It  is  the  enemy  of  mystery, 
of  pretense  and  cant.  It  does  not  ask  people  to 
be  solemn,  but  sensible.  It  calls  for  and  insists 
on  the  uses  of  all  the  senses,  of  all  the  faculties 
of  the  mind.  It  does  not  pretend  to  be  "holy" 
or  "inspired."  It  courts  investigation,  criticism 
and  even  denial.  It  asks  for  the  application  of 
every  test,  for  trial  by  every  standard.  It  knows 
nothing  of  blasphemy  and  does  not  ask  for  the 
imprisonment  of  those  who  ignorantly  or  know- 
ingly deny  the  truth.  The  good  that  springs 
from  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  is  the  only  re- 
ward it  offers,  and  the  evil  resulting  from  ignor- 
ance is  the  only  punishment  it  threatens.  Its 
effort  is  to  reform  the  world  through  intelligence. 

All  have  the  same  interest,  whether  they 
know  it  or  not,  in  the  establishment  of  facts. 


82 


The  inventors  have  helped  more  than  any 
other  class  to  make  the  world  what  it  is:  the 
workers  and  the  thinkers,  the  poor  and  the 
grand;  Labor  and  Learning,  Industry  and  In- 
telligence; Watt  and  Descartes,  Fulton  and 
Montaigne,  Stephenson  and  Kepler,  Crompton 
and  Comte,  Franklin  and  Voltaire,  Morse  and 
Buckle,  Draper  and  Spencer,  and  hundreds  more 
that  I  could  mention.  The  inventors,  the  work- 
ers, the  thinkers,  the  mechanics,  the  surgeons, 
the  philosophers,  —  these  are  the  Atlases  upon 
whose  shoulders  rests  the  great  fabric  of  modern 
civilization. 

Aristotle  said  women  had  more  teeth  than 
men.  This  was  repeated  again  and  again  by  the 
Catholic  scientists  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Voltaire  counted  the  teeth.  The  rest  were  satis- 
fied with  "they  say." 

Every  science  rests  on  the  natural,  on  demon- 
strated facts.  Soon  morality  and  religion  must 
find  their  foundations  in  the  necessary  nature  of 
things. 

Reason,  Observation  and  Experience  —  the 
Holy  Trinity  of  Science  —  have  taught  us  that 
happiness  is  the  only  good ;  that  the  time  to  be 
happy  is  now,  and  the  way  to  be  happy  is  to 
make  others  so.  This  is  enough  for  us.  In  this 
belief  we  are  content  to  live  and  die.  If  by 
any  possibility  the  existence  of  a  power  superior 
to,  and  independent  of,  nature  shall  be  demon- 
strated, there  will  then  be  time  enough  to  kneel. 
Until  then,  let  us  stand  erect. 


Progr 


On  Voltaire. 


Hoiv 

to  Reform 

Alankind. 


The  Gods. 


83 


The  Great 
Infidels. 


A 

Thanksgiving 
Sermon. 


The  great  effort  of  the  human  mind  is  to 
ascertain  the  order  of  facts  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded—  the  history  of  things. 

It  is  a  long  road  from  the  savage  to  the  scien- 
tist; from  the  den  to  the  mansion;  from  leaves 
to  clothes;  from  a  flickering  rush  to  an  arc- 
light;  from  a  hammer  of  stone  to  the  modern 
mill.  A  long  distance  from  the  pipe  of  Pan  to 
the  violin,  to  the  orchestra ;  from  a  floating  log 
to  the  steamship;  from  a  sickle  to  a  reaper; 
from  a  flail  to  a  threshing-machine;  from  a 
crooked  stick  to  a  plow ;  from  a  spinning-wheel 
to  a  spinning-jenny;  from  a  hand-loom  to  a 
Jacquard  —  a  Jacquard  that  weaves  fair  forms 
and  wondrous  flowers  beyond  Arachne's  utmost 
dream.  From  a  few  hieroglyphics  on  the  skins 
of  beasts,  on  bricks  of  clay,  to  a  printing-press, 
to  a  library;  a  long  distance  from  a  messenger, 
traveling  on  foot,  to  the  electric  spark;  from 
knives  and  tools  of  stone  to  those  of  steel ;  a  long 
distance  from  sand  to  telescope;  from  echo  to 
the  phonograph  —  the  phonograph  that  buries 
in  indented  lines  and  dots  the  sounds  of  living 
speech,  and  then  gives  back  to  life  the  very 
words  and  voices  of  the  dead.  A  long  way  from 
the  trumpet  to  the  telephone  —  the  telephone 
that  transports  speech  as  swift  as  thought  and 
drops  the  words,  perfect  as  minted  coins,  in  lis- 
tening ears ;  a  long  way  from  a  fallen  tree  to  the 
suspension  bridge ;  from  the  dried  sinews  of 
beasts  to  cables  of  steel;  from  the  oar  to  the 
propeller ;  from  the  sling  to  the  rifle ;  from  the 
catapult  to  the  cannon.  A  long  distance  from 
revenge  to  law ;  from  the  club  to  the  legislature ; 


84 


from  slavery   to   freedom;  from  appearance  to 
fact;  from  fear  to  reason. 

And  yet  the  distance  has  been  traveled  by  the 
human  race.  Countless  obstructions  have  been 
overcome,  numberless  enemies  have  been  con- 
quered, thousands  and  thousands  of  victories  have 
been  won  for  the  right,  and  millions  have  lived, 
labored  and  died  for  their  fellow  men. 


A 

Thanhgi-vir.g 
Sermon. 


For  the  blessings  we  enjoy,  the  happiness 
that  is  ours,  we  ought  to  be  grateful.  Our  hearts 
should  blossom  with  thankfulness. 


A 

Thanksgiving 
Sermon. 


85 


Protection 

for  American 

Acton. 


Liberty  in 
Literature. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


ART 

In  old  age  we  are  not  only  willing,  but 
anxious,  to  exchange  wealth,  and  fame,  and 
glory,  and  magnificence,  for  simplicity.  All  the 
palaces  are  nothing  compared  with  our  little 
cabin,  and  all  the  flowers  of  the  world  are 
naught  to  the  wild  rose  that  climbs  and  blos- 
soms by  the  lowly  window  of  content. 

Most  writers  suppress  individuality.  They 
wish  to  please  the  public.  They  flatter  the  stu- 
pid and  pander  to  the  prejudice  of  their  readers. 
They  write  for  the  market- making  books  as 
other  mechanics  make  shoes;  they  have  no  mes- 
sage, they  bear  no  torch;  they  are  simply  the 
slaves  of  customers. 

The  stage  has  taught  the  noblest  lesson,  the 
highest  truth,  and  that  is  this:  it  is  better  to  de- 
serve without  receiving  than  to  receive  without 
deserving. 

Children  of  the  stage  with  fancy's  wand 
rebuild  the  past.  The  dead  are  brought  to  life 
and  made  to  act  again  the  parts  they  lived.  The 
hearts  and  lips  that  long  ago  were  dust  are  made 
to  beat  and  speak  again.  The  dead  kings  are 
crowned  once  more,  and  from  the  shadows  of 
the  past  emerge  the  queens,  jeweled  and  scep- 
tered  as  of  yore.  Lovers  leave  their  graves  and 
breathe  again  their  burning  vows;  and  again  the 
white  breasts  rise  and  fall  in  passion's  storm. 
The  laughter  that  died  away  beneath  the  touch 


86 


of  death  is  heard  again,  and  lips  that  fell  to  ashes 
long  ago  are  curved  once  more  with  mirth. 
Again  the  hero  bares  his  breast  to  death ;  again 
the  patriot  falls,  and  again  the  scaffold,  stained 
with  noble  blood,  becomes  a  shrine. 

Music  may  be  divided  into  three  kinds:  first, 
the  music  of  simple  life,  without  any  particular 
emphasis,  —  and  this  may  be  called  the  music  of 
the  heels ;  second,  music  in  which  time  is  varied, 
in  which  there  is  the  eager  haste  and  the  deli- 
cious delay  —  that  is,  the  fast  and  slow,  in  ac- 
cordance with  our  feelings,  with  our  emotions, — 
and  this  may  be  called  the  music  of  the  heart; 
third,  the  music  that  includes  time  and  emphasis, 
the  hastening  and  the  delay,  and  something 
in  addition,  that  produces  not  only  states  of 
feeling,  but  states  of  thought,  —  this  may  be 
called  the  music  of  the  head,  the  music  of  the 
brain. 

Wagner  is  the  Shakespeare  of  Music. 

The  funeral  march  of  Siegfried  is  the 
funeral  music  of  all  the  dead.  Should  all  the 
gods  die,  this  music  would  be  perfectly  appro- 
priate.   It  is  elemental,  universal,  eternal. 

The  love-music  in  Tristan  and  Isolde  is,  like 
that  in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  an  expression  of  the 
human  heart  for  all  time.  So  the  love-duet  in 
The  Flying  Dutchman  has  in  it  the  consecration, 
the  infinite  self-denial,  of  love.  The  whole  heart 
is  given;  every  note  has  wings,  and  rises  and 
poises  like  an  eagle  in  the  heaven  of  sound. 


Seidl-Stanton 
Dinner. 


Scidl-Stanton 
Dinner. 

Seidl-Stanton 
Dinner. 


Seidl-Stanton 
Dinner, 


*7 


Seidl-Stanton 
Dinner. 


Address  to  the 

Actors'   Fund 

of  America. 


Seidl-Stanton 
Dinner. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


Language  is  not  subtle  enough,  tender 
enough,  to  express  all  that  we  feel;  and  when 
language  fails,  the  highest  and  deepest  longings 
are  translated  into  music.  Music  is  the  sun- 
shine—  the  climate  —  of  the  soul,  and  it  floods 
the  heart  with  a  perfect  June. 

The  greatest  genius  of  this  world  has  pro- 
duced your  literature.  I  am  not  now  alluding 
simply  to  one;  but  there  has  been  more  genius 
lavished  upon  the  stage,  more  real  genius,  more 
creative  talent,  than  upon  any  other  department 
of  human  effort.  And  when  men  and  women  be- 
long to  a  profession  that  can  count  Shakespeare  in 
its  number,  they  should  feel  nothing  but  pride. 

It  is  probable  that  I  was  selected  to  speak 
about  music,  because,  not  knowing  one  note 
from  another,  I  have  no  prejudice  on  the  subject. 
All  I  can  say  is  this:  that  I  know  what  I  like, 
and,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  like  every  kind,  enjoy  it 
all,  from  the  hand-organ  to  the  orchestra. 

The  children  of  the  stage,  these  citizens  of 
the  mimic  world,  are  not  the  grasping,  shrewd 
and  prudent  people  of  the  mart.  They  are  im- 
provident enough  to  enjoy  the  present  and 
credulous  enough  to  believe  the  promises  of  the 
universal  liar  known  as  Hope.  Their  hearts  and 
hands  are  open.  As  a  rule,  genius  is  generous, 
luxurious,  lavish,  reckless  and  royal.  And  so, 
when  they  have  reached  the  ladder's  topmost 
round,  they  think  the  world  is  theirs  and  that  the 
heaven  of  the  future  can  have  no  cloud.  But 
from  the  ranks  of  youth  the  rival  steps.    Upon 


88 


the  veteran  brows  the  wreaths  begin  to  fade,  the 
leaves  to  fall,  and  failure  sadly  sups  on  memory. 
They  tread  the  stage  no  more.  They  leave  the 
mimic  world,  fair  fancy's  realm ;  they  leave  their 
palaces  and  thrones;  their  crowns  are  gone,  and 
from  their  hands  the  scepters  fall.  At  last,  in 
age  and  want,  in  lodgings  small  and  bare,  they 
wait  the  Prompter's  call. 

Art  has  nothing  to  do  directly  with  morality 
or  immorality.  It  is  its  own  excuse  for  being; 
it  exists  for  itself. 

Art  is  not  a  sermon,  and  the  artist  is  not  a 
preacher.  Art  accomplishes  by  indirection.  The 
beautiful  refines. 

The  drama  is  a  crystallization  of  history,  an 
epitome  of  the  human  heart.  The  past  is  lived 
again  and  again,  and  we  see  upon  the  stage, 
love,  sacrifice,  fidelity,  courage  —  all  the  virtues 
mingled  with  all  the  follies. 

Great  music  is  always  sad,  because  it  tells  us 
of  the  perfect;  and  such  is  the  difference  be- 
tween what  we  are  and  that  which  music  sug- 
gests—  that  even  in  the  vase  of  joy  we  find  some 
tears. 

Intelligence,  imagination,  presence;  a  mo- 
bile and  impressive  face ;  a  body  that  lends  itself 
to  every  mood  in  appropriate  pose  —  one  that  is 
oak  or  willow  at  will;  self-possession;  absolute 
ease;  a  voice  capable  of  giving  every  shade  of 
meaning  and  feeling;   an  intuitive  knowledge  or 


Art  and 
Morality. 


Art  and 
Morality. 


Address  to  the 
Actors*  Fund 
of  America. 


Seidl-Stanton 
Dinner. 


Plays  and 
Players. 


89 


Art  and 
Morality. 


On  Robert 
Burns. 


Plays  and 
Players. 


The  Church 
and  the  Stage. 


perception  of  proportion;  and,  above  all,  the 
actor  should  be  so  sincere  that  he  loses  himself 
in  the  character  he  portrays.  Such  an  actor  will 
grow  intellectually  and  morally.  The  great  actor 
should  strive  to  satisfy  himself — to  reach  his 
own  ideal. 

The  artist  who  endeavors  to  enforce  a  les- 
son, becomes  a  preacher ;  and  the  artist  who  tries 
by  hint  and  suggestion  to  enforce  the  immoral, 
becomes  a  pander. 

Poetry  cannot  be  written  by  rule;  it  is  not 
a  trade  or  a  profession.  Let  the  critics  lay  down 
the  laws,  and  the  true  poet  will  violate  them  all. 

Nearly  all  the  arts  unite  in  the  theater,  and 
it  is  the  result  of  the  best,  the  highest,  the  most 
artistic,  that  man  can  do. 

Nothing  is  more  natural  than  imitation. 
The  little  child  with  her  doll,  telling  it  stories, 
putting  words  in  its  mouth,  attributing  to  it  the 
feelings  of  happiness  and  misery,  is  the  simple 
tendency  toward  the  drama.  Little  children 
always  have  plays;  they  imitate  their  parents, 
they  put  on  the  clothes  of  their  elders;  they 
have  imaginary  parties,  carry  on  conversation 
with  imaginary  persons,  have  little  dishes  filled 
with  imaginary  food,  pour  tea  and  coffee  out  of 
invisible  pots,  receive  callers,  and  repeat  what 
they  have  heard  their  mothers  say.  This  is  simply 
the  natural  drama,  an  exercise  of  the  imagina- 
tion which  always  has  been  and  which,  probably, 
always  will  be,  a  source  of  great  pleasure.    In 


90 


the  early  days  of  the  world  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  for  the  people  to  reenact  the  history 
of  their  country  —  to  represent  the  great  heroes, 
the  great  battles,  and  the  most  exciting  scenes 
the  history  of  which  has  been  preserved  by 
legend.  I  believe  this  tendency  to  reenact,  to 
bring  before  the  eyes  the  great,  the  curious,  the 
pathetic  events  of  history,  has  been  universal. 
All  civilized  nations  have  delighted  in  the  thea- 
ter, and  the  greatest  minds  in  many  countries 
have  been  devoted  to  the  drama,  and,  without 
doubt,  the  greatest  man  about  whom  we  know 
anything  devoted  his  life  to  the  production  of 
plays. 


The  citizens  of  the  real  world  gain  joy 
and  comfort  from  the  stage.  The  broker,  the 
speculator  ruined  by  rumor,  the  lawyer  baffled 
by  the  intelligence  of  the  jury  or  the  stupidity 
of  a  judge,  the  doctor  who  lost  his  patience  be- 
cause he  lost  his  patients,  the  merchant  in  the 
dark  days  of  depression,  and  all  the  children  of 
misfortune,  the  victims  of  hope  deferred,  forget 
their  troubles  for  a  little  while  when  looking  on 
the  mimic  world.  When  the  shaft  of  wit  flies 
like  the  arrow  of  Ulysses  through  all  the  rings 
and  strikes  the  center;  when  words  of  wisdom 
mingle  with  the  clown's  conceits;  when  folly 
laughing  shows  her  pearls,  and  mirth  holds  car- 
nival; when  the  villain  fails  and  the  right  tri- 
umphs, the  trials  and  the  griefs  of  life  for  the 
moment  fade  away. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


And  so  the  maiden  longing  to  be  loved,  the 
young    man    waiting    for    the  "Yes"    deferred, 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage. 


9* 


the  unloved  wife,  here  the  old,  old  story  told 
again, — and  again  within  their  hearts  is  the 
ecstasy  of  requited  love. 


The  Children 
of  the  Stage 


The  stage  brings  solace  to  the  wounded, 
peace  to  the  troubled,  and  with  the  wizard's 
wand  touches  the  tears  of  grief,  and  they  are 
changed  to  the  smiles  of  joy. 


92 


CRIME 


There  are  men  who  pursue  crime  as  a  voca- 
tion—  as  a  profession;  men  who  have  been  con- 
victed again  and  again,  and  who  will  persist  in 
using  the  liberty  of  intervals  to  prey  upon  the 
rights  of  others.  What  shall  be  done  with  these 
men  and  women? 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Put  one  thousand  hardened  thieves  on  an 
island,  compel  them  to  produce  what  they  eat 
and  use,  and  I  am  almost  certain  that  a  large 
majority  would  be  opposed  to  theft.  Those  who 
worked  would  not  permit  those  who  did  not,  to 
steal  the  result  of  their  labor.  In  other  words, 
self-preservation  would  be  the  dominant  idea,  and 
these  men  would  instantly  look  upon  the  idlers 
as  the  enemies  of  their  society. 

Such  a  community  would  be  self-supporting. 
Let  women  of  the  same  class  be  put  by  them- 
selves. Keep  the  sexes  absolutely  apart.  Those 
who  are  beyond  the  power  of  reformation  should 
not  have  the  liberty  to  reproduce  themselves. 
Those  who  cannot  be  reached  by  kindness,  by 
justice,  those  who  under  no  circumstances  are 
willing  to  do  their  share,  should  be  separated. 
They  should  dwell  apart,  and,  dying,  should 
leave  no  heirs. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


If  we  are  to  change  the  conduct  of  men,  we 
must  change  their  conditions.  Extreme  poverty 
and  crime  go  hand  in  hand.  Destitution  multi- 
plies temptations  and  destroys  the  finer  feelings. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


93 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


The  bodies  and  souls  of  men  are  apt  to  be  clad 
in  like  garments.  If  the  body  is  covered  with 
rags,  the  soul  is  generally  in  the  same  condition. 

As  long  as  children  are  raised  in  the  tene- 
ment and  gutter,  the  prisons  will  be  full.  The 
gulf  between  the  rich  and  poor  will  grow  wider 
and  wider.  One  will  depend  on  cunning,  the 
other  on  force.  It  is  a  great  question  whether 
those  who  live  in  luxury  can  afford  to  allow 
others  to  exist  in  want.  The  value  of  property 
depends  not  on  the  prosperity  of  the  few,  but 
on  the  prosperity  of  a  very  large  majority. 

Socrates,  in  some  respects  at  least,  one  of 
the  wisest  of  men,  said:  "It  is  strange  that  you 
should  not  be  angry  when  you  meet  a  man  with 
an  ill-conditioned  body,  and  yet  be  vexed  when 
you  encounter  one  with  an  ill-conditioned  soul." 

We  know  that  there  are  deformed  bodies, 
and  we  are  equally  certain  that  there  are  de- 
formed minds. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


In  civilized  countries  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence is  severe  —  the  competition  far  sharper  than 
in  savage  lands.  The  consequence  is  that  there 
are  many  failures.  These  failures  lack,  it  may 
be  opportunity,  or  brain,  or  moral  force,  or 
industry,  or  something  without  which,  under  the 
circumstances,  success  is  impossible.  Certain 
lines  of  conduct  are  called  legal,  and  certain 
others  criminal,  and  the  men  who  fail  in  one 
line  may  be  driven  to  the  other.  How  do  we 
know  that    it    is  possible  for  all    people  to    be 


9+ 


honest?  Are  we  certain  that  all  people  can  tell 
the  truth  ?  Is  it  possible  for  all  men  to  be  gen- 
erous, or  candid,  or  courageous? 

Ignorance,  filth  and  poverty  are  the  mis- 
sionaries of  crime.  As  long  as  dishonorable  suc- 
cess outranks  honest  effort,  as  long  as  society 
bows  and  cringes  before  the  great  thieves,  there 
will  be  little  ones  enough  to  fill  the  jails. 

Is  it  not  true  that  the  criminal  is  a  natural 
product,  and  that  society  unconsciously  produces 
these  children  of  vice?  Can  we  not  safely  take 
another  step,  and  say  that  the  criminal  is  a  vic- 
tim, as  the  diseased  and  insane  and  deformed  are 
victims  ? 

Most  people  defend  capital  punishment  on 
the  ground  that  the  man  ought  to  be  killed  be- 
cause he  has  killed  another.  The  only  real 
ground  for  killing  him,  even  if  that  be  good,  is 
not  that  he  has  killed,  but  that  he  may  kill. 
What  he  has  done  simply  gives  evidence  of  what 
he  may  do,  and  to  prevent  what  he  may  do, 
instead  of  to  revenge  what  he  has  done,  should 
be  the  reason  given. 

But  I  look  forward  to  the  time  when  men 
and  women  by  reason  of  their  knowledge  of 
consequences,  of  the  morality  born  of  intelli- 
gence, will  refuse  to  perpetuate  disease  and  pain, 
will  refuse  to  fill  the  world  with  failures. 

When  that  time  comes  the  prison  walls  will 
fall,  the  dungeons  will  be  flooded  with  light,  and 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Crimes  Against 
Criminals. 


Society  and  Its 
Criminals. 


What  Is 
Religion  f 


What  Is 
Religion  ? 


95 


Capital  Pun- 
ishment and  the 
Whipping- 
Post. 


the  shadow  of  the  scaffold  will  cease  to  curse  the 
earth.  Poverty  and  crime  will  be  childless.  The 
withered  hands  of  Want  will  not  be  stretched 
for  alms.  They  will  be  dust.  The  whole  world 
will  be  intelligent,  virtuous  and  free. 

Society  has  a  right  to  protect  itself,  but  this 
can  be  done  by  imprisonment,  and  it  is  more 
humane  to  put  a  criminal  in  a  cell  than  in  a 
grave.  Capital  punishment  degrades  and  hardens 
a  community,  and  it  is  a  work  of  savagery. 
Any  punishment  that  degrades  the  punished, 
must  necessarily  degrade  the  one  inflicting  the 
punishment.  No  punishment  should  be  inflicted 
by  a  human  being  that  could  not  be  inflicted  by 
a  gentleman. 


Capital  Pun- 
ishment an  J  the 
fVhipping- 
Post. 


I  think  the  refusal  of  the  Governor  to  com- 
mute the  sentence  of  Mrs.  Place  is  a  disgrace 
to  the  State.  What  a  spectacle  of  man  killing 
a  woman  —  taking  a  poor,  pallid,  frightened 
woman,  strapping  her  to  a  chair  and  then  ar- 
ranging the  apparatus  so  she  can  be  shocked  to 
death ! 


96 


WAR 


The  past  arises  before  me  like  a  dream. 
Again  we  are  in  the  great  struggle  for  national 
life.  We  hear  the  sounds  of  preparation  —  the 
music  of  boisterous  drums,  the  silver  voices  of 
heroic  bugles.  We  see  thousands  of  assemblages, 
and  hear  the  appeals  of  orators.  We  see  the  pale 
cheeks  of  women,  and  the  flushed  faces  of  men, 
and  in  those  assemblages  we  see  all  the  dead 
whose  dust  we  have  covered  with  flowers.  We 
lose  sight  of  them  no  more.  We  are  with  them 
when  they  enlist  in  the  great  army  of  freedom. 
We  see  them  apart  with  those  they  love.  Some 
are  walking  for  the  last  time  in  quiet,  woody 
places,  with  the  maidens  they  adore.  We  hear 
the  whisperings  and  the  sweet  vows  of  eternal 
love  as  they  lingeringly  part  forever.  Others  are 
bending  over  cradles,  kissing  babes  that  are 
asleep.  Some  are  receiving  the  blessing  of  old 
men.  Some  are  parting  with  mothers  who  hold 
them  and  press  them  to  their  hearts  again  and 
again,  and  say  nothing.  And  some  are  talking 
with  wives,  and  endeavoring  with  brave  words, 
spoken  in  the  old  tones,  to  drive  from  their 
hearts  the  awful  fear.  We  see  them  part.  We 
see  the  wife  standing  in  the  door  with  the  babe 
in  her  arms,  standing  in  the  sunlight  sobbing. 
At  the  turn  of  the  road  a  hand  waves;  she 
answers  by  holding  high  in  her  loving  arms  the 
child.    He  is  gone,  and  forever. 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


We  see  them  all  as  they  march  proudly  away 
under  the   flaunting  flags,  keeping  time  to   the 


Ir.dianapolii 
Speech. 


97 


EM  Wfyt  ^ijtlosopijp  of  JJngcrsoll  B&B 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


grand  wild  music  of  war,  marching  down  the 
streets  of  the  great  cities,  through  the  towns  and 
across  the  prairies,  down  to  the  fields  of  glory, 
to  do  and  to  die  for  the  eternal  right. 

We  go  with  them,  one  and  all.  We  are  by 
their  side  on  all  the  gory  fields,  in  all  the  hospi- 
tals of  pain,  on  all  the  weary  marches.  We  stand 
guard  with  them  in  the  wild  storm  and  under 
the  quiet  stars.  We  are  with  them  in  ravines 
running  with  blood,  in  the  furrows  of  old  fields. 
We  are  with  them  between  contending  hosts, 
unable  to  move,  wild  with  thirst,  the  life  ebbing 
slowly  away  among  the  withered  leaves.  We  see 
them  pierced  with  balls  and  torn  with  shells,  in 
the  trenches,  by  forts,  and  in  the  whirlwind  of 
the  charge,  where  men  become  iron,  with  nerves 
of  steel. 

We  are  with  them  in  the  prisons  of  hatred 
and  famine;  but  human  speech  can  never  tell 
what  they  endured. 

We  are  at  home  when  the  news  comes  that 
they  are  dead.  We  see  the  maiden  in  the  shadow 
of  her  first  sorrow.  We  see  the  silvered  head  of 
the  old  man  bowed  with  the  last  grief. 

The  past  rises  before  us,  and  we  see  four 
millions  of  human  beings  governed  by  the  lash ; 
we  see  them  bound  hand  and  foot ;  we  hear  the 
strokes  of  cruel  whips ;  we  see  the  hounds  track- 
ing women  through  tangled  swamps.  We  see 
babes  sold  from  the  breasts  of  mothers.  Cruelty 
unspeakable !   Outrage  infinite  ! 


98 


Four  million  bodies  in  chains  —  four  million 
souls  in  fetters.  All  the  sacred  relations  of  wife, 
mother,  father  and  child  trampled  beneath  the 
brutal  feet  of  Might!  And  all  this  was  done 
under  our  own  beautiful  banner  of  the  free. 

The  past  rises  before  us.  We  hear  the  roar 
and  shriek  of  the  bursting  shell.  The  broken 
fetters  fall.  These  heroes  died.  We  look.  In- 
stead of  slaves  we  see  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren. The  wand  of  progress  touches  the  auc- 
tion-block, the  slave-pen,  the  whipping-post,  and 
we  see  homes  and  firesides,  and  schoolhouses 
and  books,  and  where  all  was  want  and  crime 
and  cruelty  and  fear,  we  see  the  faces  of  the 
free. 

These  heroes  are  dead.  They  died  for  lib- 
erty—  they  died  for  us.  They  are  at  rest. 
They  sleep  in  the  land  they  made  free,  under 
the  flag  they  rendered  stainless,  under  the 
solemn  pines,  the  sad  hemlocks,  the  tearful  wil- 
lows, and  the  embracing  vines.  They  sleep  be- 
neath the  shadows  of  the  clouds,  careless  alike 
of  sunshine  or  of  storm,  each  in  the  windowless 
place  of  Rest.  Earth  may  run  red  with  other 
wars  —  they  are  at  peace.  In  the  midst  of  bat- 
tle, in  the  roar  of  conflict,  they  found  the 
serenity  of  death.  I  have  one  sentiment  for  sol- 
diers living  and  dead :  cheers  for  the  living, 
tears  for  the  dead. 


\To  me  it  seems  infinitely  cruel  for  life  to  feed 
on  life  —  to  create  animals  that  devour  others. 
The  teeth  and  beaks,  the  claws  and  fangs,  that 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


Indianapolis 
Speech. 


Why  I  Am 
an  Agnostic. 


99 


tear  and  rend,  fill  me  with  horror.  What  can 
be  more  frightful  than  a  world  at  wariJ  Every 
leaf  a  battle-field,  every  flower  a  Golgotha,  in 
every  drop  of  water  pursuit,  capture  and  death. 
Under  every  piece  of  bark,  life  lying  in  wait  for 
life:  on  every  blade  of  grass,  something  that 
kills,  something  that  suffers.  Everywhere  the 
strong  living  on  the  weak  —  the  superior  on  the 
inferior.  Everywhere  the  weak,  the  insignifi- 
cant, living  on  the  strong  —  the  inferior  on  the 
superior :  the  highest,  food  for  the  lowest :  man 
sacrificed  for  the  sake  of  microbes.  Murder 
universal.  Everywhere  pain,  disease  and  death  — 
death  that  does  not  wait  for  bent  forms  and  gray 
hairs,  but  clutches  babes  and  happy  youths  — 
death  that  takes  the  mother  from  her  helpless, 
dimpled  child  —  death  that  fills  the  world  with 
grief  and  tears. 


Grant 
Banquet. 


The  soldiers  were  saviors  of  the  nation; 
they  were  the  liberators  of  man.  In  writing 
the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  Lincoln, 
greatest  of  our  mighty  dead,  whose  memory  is 
as  gentle  as  the  summer  air  when  the  reapers 
sing  amid  the  gathered  sheaves,  copied  with  the 
pen  what  Grant  and  his  brave  comrades  wrote 
with  sword. 


Grant 
Banquet. 


Grander  than  the  Greek,  nobler  than  the 
Roman,  the  soldiers  of  the  Republic,  with  pa- 
triotism as  shoreless  as  the  air,  battled  for 
the  rights  of  others,  for  the  nobility  of  labor; 
fought  that  mothers  might  own  their  own 
babes,  that  arrogant  Idleness  should  not  scar 
the  back  of  patient  Toil,  and  that  our  country 


IOO 


GCfje  $f)tlos;opf)p  of  Sngersoll 


should  not  be  a  many-headed  monster  made  of 
warring  States,  but  a  nation,  sovereign,  great 
and  free. 

Blood  was  water,  money  was  leaves,  and  life 
was  only  common  air  until  one  flag  floated 
over  a  republic  without  a  master  and  without  a 
slave. 


Grant 
Banquet. 


IOI 


Spiritualism. 


Spiritualism. 


SPIRITUALISM 

There  are  several  good  things  about  the 
Spiritualists.  First,  they  are  not  bigoted ;  second, 
they  do  not  believe  in  salvation  of  faith;  third, 
they  don't  expect  to  be  happy  in  another  world 
because  Christ  was  good  in  this ;  fourth,  they  do 
not  preach  the  consolation  of  hell;  fifth,  they 
do  not  believe  in  God  as  an  infinite  monster; 
sixth,  the  Spiritualists  believe  in  intellectual  hos- 
pitality. In  these  respects  they  differ  from  our 
Christian  brethren,  and  in  these  respects  they  are 
far  superior  to  the  saints. 

I  think  that  the  Spiritualists  have  done  good. 
They  believe  in  enjoying  themselves  —  in  having 
a  little  pleasure  in  this  world.  They  are  social, 
cheerful  and  good-natured.  They  are  not  the 
slaves  of  a  book.  Their  hands  and  feet  are  not 
tied  with  passages  of  Scripture.  They  are  not 
troubling  themselves  about  getting  forgiveness 
and  settling  their  heavenly  debts  for  a  cent  on 
the  dollar.  Their  belief  does  not  make  them 
mean  or  miserable. 


Spiritualism. 


They  do  not  persecute  their  neighbors.  They 
ask  no  one  to  have  faith  or  to  believe  without 
evidence.  They  ask  all  to  investigate,  and  then 
to  make  up  their  minds  from  the  evidence. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  well-educated,  intelli- 
gent people  are  satisfied  with  the  evidence,  and 
firmly  believe  in  the  existence  of  spirits.  For  all 
I  know,  they  may  be  right. 


IOZ 


OPTIMISM 


A  vision  of  the  future  rises: 

I  see  our  country  filled  with  happy  homes, 
with  firesides  of  content,  —  the  foremost  land 
of  all  the  earth. 

I  see  a  world  where  thrones  have  crumbled 
and  where  kings  are  dust.  The  aristocracy  of 
idleness  has  perished  from  the  earth. 

I  see  a  world  without  a  slave.  Man  at  last 
is  free.  Nature's  forces  have  by  Science  been 
enslaved.  Lightning  and  light,  wind  and  wave, 
frost  and  flame,  and  all  the  secret,  subtle  powers 
of  earth  and  air  are  the  tireless  toilers  for  the 
human  race. 

I  see  a  world  at  peace,  adorned  with  every 
form  of  art,  with  music's  myriad  voices  thrilled, 
while  lips  are  rich  with  words  of  love  and  truth ; 
a  world  in  which  no  exile  sighs,  no  prisoner 
mourns;  a  world  on  which  the  gibbet's  shadow 
does  not  fall;  a  world  where  labor  reaps  its 
full  reward ;  where  work  and  worth  go  hand  in 
hand;  where  the  poor  girl  trying  to  win  bread 
with  the  needle  —  the  needle  that  has  been 
called  "the  asp  for  the  breast  of  the  poor" — is 
not  driven  to  the  desperate  choice  of  crime  or 
death,  of  suicide  or  shame. 

I  see  a  world  without  the  beggar's  out- 
stretched palm,  the  miser's  heartless,  stony  stare, 
the  piteous  wail  of  Want,  the  livid  lips  of  Lies, 
the  cruel  eyes  of  Scorn. 

I  see  a  race  without  disease  of  flesh  or  brain, 
shapely  and  fair,  the  married  harmony  of  form 
and   function,  —  and  as  I  look,   life   lengthens, 


Declaration 
Day  Oration. 


I03 


The  Gods. 


Lotus  Club 
Dinner. 


Lotus  Club 
Dinner. 


joy  deepens,  love  canopies  the  earth,  and  over 
all,  in  the  great  dome,  shines  the  eternal  star  of 
human  hope. 

While  utterly  discarding  all  creeds,  and  deny- 
ing the  infallibility  of  all  religions,  there  is 
neither  in  my  heart  nor  upon  my  lips  a  sneer  for 
the  hopeful,  loving  and  tender  souls  who  believe 
that  from  all  this  discord  will  result  a  perfect 
harmony ;  that  every  evil  will  in  some  mysterious 
way  become  a  good,  and  that  above  and  over  all 
there  is  a  being  who,  in  some  way,  will  reclaim 
and  glorify  every  one  of  the  children  of  men. 

The  highest  possible  philosophy  is  to  enjoy 
today,  not  regretting  yesterday,  and  not  fearing 
tomorrow.  Let  us  suck  the  orange  of  life  dry, 
so  that  when  Death  does  come,  we  can  politely 
say  to  him :  "  You  are  welcome  to  the  peelings. 
What  little  there  was  we  have  enjoyed.' 

But  there  is  one  splendid  thing  about  the 
play  called  life.  Suppose  that  when  you  die, 
that  is  the  end.  The  last  thing  that  you  know 
is  that  you  are  alive,  and  the  last  thing  that  will 
happen  to  you  is  the  curtain,  not  falling,  but  the 
curtain  rising  on  another  thought,  so  that  as  far 
as  your  consciousness  is  concerned  you  will  and 
must  live  forever.  No  man  can  remember  when 
he  began,  and  no  man  can  remember  when  he 
ends.  As  far  as  we  are  concerned  we  live  both 
eternities,  the  one  past  and  the  one  to  come,  and 
it  is  a  delight  to  me  to  feel  satisfied,  and  to  feel 
in  my  own  heart  that  I  can  never  be  certain  that 
I  have  seen  the  faces  I  love  for  the  last  time. 


104. 


IMMORTALITY 

My  opinion  of  immortality  is  this: 
First,  I  live,  and  that  of  itself  is  infinitely 
wonderful.  Second,  there  was  a  time  when  I 
was  not,  and  after  I  was  not,  I  was.  Third,  now 
that  I  am,  I  may  be  again;  and  it  is  no  more 
wonderful  that  I  may  be  again,  if  I  have  been, 
than  that  I  am,  having  once  been  nothing. 

Neither  the  Bible  nor  the  Church  gave  us 
the  idea  of  immortality. 

I  If  we  are  immortal  it  is  a  fact  in  nature,  and 
that  fact  does  not  depend  on  Bibles,  on  priests 
or  creeds.J 

^  The  hope  of  another  life  was  in  the  heart, 
long  before  the  "sacred  books"  were  written, 
and  will  remain  there  long  after  all  the  "sacred 
books"  are  known  to  be  the  work  oi  savage  and 
superstitious  men. 

/  Is  death  the  end  ?  Over  the  grave  bends 
Love  sobbing,  and  by  her  side  stands  Hope,  and 
whispers :  "  We  shall  meet  again.  Before  all  life 
is  death,  and  after  all  death  is  life.  The  falling 
leaf,  touched  with  the  hectic  flush,  that  testifies 
of  autumn's  death,  is,  in  a  subtler  sense,  a  proph- 
ecy of  spring."^ 

If,  when  the  grave  bursts,  I  am  not  to  meet 
the  faces  that  have  been  my  sunshine  in  this 
life,  let  me  sleep. 


Miracles  and 
Immortality. 


Orthodoxy. 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 


The 

Foundations 
of  Faith. 


Liberty  and 
Literature. 


Orthodoxy. 


I05 


Orthodoxy . 


The  Ghosts. 


Orthodoxy. 


Funeral  of 

J.  G.  Mills, 

and 

Immortality. 


From  the  affection  of  the  human  heart  grew 
the  great  oak  of  the  hope  of  immortality. 

The  idea  of  immortality,  that  like  a  sea  has 
ebbed  and  flowed  in  the  human  heart,  with  its 
countless  waves  of  hope  and  fear,  beating  against 
the  shores  and  rocks  of  time  and  fate,  was  not 
born  of  any  book,  nor  of  any  creed,  nor  of  any 
religion.  It  was  born  of  human  affection,  and 
it  will  continue  to  ebb  and  flow  beneath  the 
mists  and  clouds  of  doubt  and  darkness  as  long 
as  Love  kisses  the  lips  of  Death.  It  is  the  rain- 
bow—  Hope  shining  upon  the  tears  of  Grief. 

We  do  not  know,  we  cannot  say,  whether 
death  is  a  wall  or  a  door;  the  beginning  or  the 
end  of  a  day;  the  spreading  of  pinions  to  soar, 
or  the  folding  forever  of  wings;  the  rise  or  the 
set  of  a  sun,  or  an  endless  life  that  brings  rap- 
ture and  love  to  every  one. 

I  have  never  denied  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  I  have  simply  been  honest.  I  have  said, 
"  I  do  not  know." 


106 


TRIBUTES 


Dear  Friends:  I  am  going  to  do  that  which 
the  dead  oft  promised  he  would  do  for  me. 

The  loved  and  loving  brother,  husband, 
father,  friend,  died  where  manhood's  morning 
almost  touches  noon,  and  while  the  shadows 
still  were  falling  toward  the  west. 

He  had  not  passed  on  life's  highway  the  stone 
that  marks  the  highest  point;  but  being  weary 
for  a  moment,  he  lay  down  by  the  wayside,  and 
using  his  burden  for  a  pillow,  fell  into  that 
dreamless  sleep  that  kisses  down  his  eyelids  still. 
While  yet  in  love  with  life  and  raptured  with 
the  world,  he  passed  to  silence  and  pathetic  dust. 

Yet,  after  all,  it  may  be  best,  just  in  the  hap- 
piest, sunniest  hour  of  all  the  voyage,  while 
eager  winds  are  kissing  every  sail,  to  dash  against 
the  unseen  rock,  and  in  an  instant  hear  the  bil- 
lows roar  above  a  sunken  ship.  For  whether  in 
mid-sea  or  'mong  the  breakers  of  the  farther 
shore,  a  wreck  at  last  must  mark  the  end  of  each 
and  all.  And  every  life,  no  matter  if  its  every 
hour  is  rich  with  love  and  every  moment  jeweled 
with  a  joy,  will,  at  its  close,  become  a  tragedy 
as  sad  and  deep  and  dark  as  can  be  woven  of 
the  warp  and  woof  of  mystery  and  death. 

This  brave  and  tender  man  in  every  storm  of 
life  was  oak  and  rock;  but  in  the  sunshine  he 
was  vine  and  flower.  He  was  the  friend  of  all 
heroic  souls.  He  climbed  the  heights,  and  left 
all  superstitions  far  below,  while  on  his  forehead 
fell  the  golden  dawning  of  a  grander  day. 

He  loved  the  beautiful,  and  was  with  color, 


A  Tribute 
to  Ebon  C. 
Ingertoll. 


I07 


form  and  music  touched  with  tears.  He  sided 
with  the  weak,  the  poor,  and  wronged,  and  lov- 
ingly gave  alms.  With  loyal  heart  and  with  the 
purest  hands  he  faithfully  discharged  all  public 
trusts. 

Life  is  a  narrow  vale  between  the  cold  and 
barren  peaks  of  two  eternities.  We  strive  in 
vain  to  look  beyond  the  heights.  We  cry  aloud, 
and  the  only  answer  is  the  echo  of  our  wailing 
cry.  From  the  voiceless  lips  of  the  unreplying 
dead  there  comes  no  word ;  but  in  the  night  of 
death  Hope  sees  a  star,  and  listening  Love  can 
hear  the  rustle  of  a  wing. 

He  who  sleeps  here,  when  dying,  mistaking 
the  approach  of  death  for  the  return  of  health, 
whispered  with  his  latest  breath,  "  I  am  better 
now."  Let  us  believe,  in  spite  of  doubts  and 
dogmas,  of  fears  and  tears,  that  these  dear  words 
are  true  of  all  the  countless  dead. 

The  record  of  a  generous  life  runs  like  a  vine 
around  the  memory  of  our  dead,  and  every 
sweet,  unselfish  act  is  now  a  perfumed  flower. 

Speech  cannot  contain  our  love.  There  was, 
there  is,  no  gentler,  stronger,  manlier  man. 


On 
Shakespeare, 


If  Shakespeare  knew  one  fact,  he  knew  its 
kindred  and  its  neighbors.  Looking  at  a  coat  of 
mail,  he  instantly  imagined  the  society,  the  con- 
ditions, that  produced  it  and  what  it,  in  turn, 
produced.  He  saw  the  castle,  the  moat,  the 
drawbridge,  the  lady  in  the  tower,  and  the 
knightly  lover  spurring  across  the  plain.  He  saw 
the  bold  baron  and  the  rude  retainer,  the 
trampled  serf,  and  all  the  glory  and  the  grief  of 
feudal  life. 


108 


He  lived  the  life  of  all. 

He  was  a  citizen  of  Athens  in  the  days  of 
Pericles.  He  listened  to  the  eager  eloquence 
of  the  great  orators,  and  sat  upon  the  cliffs,  and 
with  the  tragic  poet  heard  "the  multitudinous 
laughter  of  the  sea."  He  saw  Socrates  thrust 
the  spear  of  question  through  the  shield  and 
heart  of  Falsehood.  He  was  present  when  the 
great  man  drank  hemlock,  and  met  the  night  of 
death,  tranquil  as  a  star  meets  morning.  He 
listened  to  the  peripatetic  philosophers,  and  was 
unpuzzled  by  the  sophists.  He  watched  Phidias 
as  he  chiseled  shapeless  stone  to  forms  of  love 
and  awe. 

He  lived  by  the  mysterious  Nile,  amid  the 
vast  and  monstrous.  He  knew  the  very  thought 
that  wrought  the  form  and  features  of  the 
sphinx.  He  heard  great  Memnon's  morning 
song  when  marble  lips  were  smitten  by  the  sun. 
He  laid  him  down  with  the  embalmed  and 
waiting  dead,  and  felt  within  their  dust  the 
expectation  of  another  life,  mingled  with  cold 
and  suffocating  doubts  —  the  children  born  of 
long  delay. 

He  walked  the  ways  of  mighty  Rome,  and 
saw  great  Ca?sar  with  his  legions  in  the  field. 
He  stood  with  vast  and  motley  throngs  and 
watched  the  triumphs  given  to  victorious  men, 
followed  by  uncrowned  kings,  the  captured 
hosts,  and  all  the  spoils  of  ruthless  war.  He 
heard  the  shout  that  shook  the  Coliseum's  roof- 
less walls,  when  from  the  reeling  gladiator's  hand 
the  short  sword  fell,  while  from  his  bosom 
gushed  the  stream  of  wasted  life. 

He  lived  the  life  of  savage  men.    He  trod  the 


On 

Shakespeare. 


log 


On 

Shakespeare. 


forests'  silent  depths,  and  in  the  desperate  game 
of  life  or  death  he  matched  his  thought  against 
the  instinct  of  the  beast. 

He  knew  all  crimes  and  all  regrets,  all  virtues 
and  their  rich  rewards.  He  was  victim  and  vic- 
tor, pursuer  and  pursued,  outcast  and  king.  He 
heard  the  applause  and  curses  of  the  world,  and 
on  his  heart  had  fallen  all  the  nights  and  noons 
of  failure  and  success. 

He  knew  the  unspoken  thoughts,  the  dumb 
desires,  the  wants  and  ways  of  beasts.  He  felt 
the  crouching  tiger's  thrill,  the  terror  of  the 
ambushed  prey,  and  with  the  eagles  he  had 
shared  the  ecstasy  of  flight  and  poise  and  swoop, 
and  he  had  lain  with  sluggish  serpents  on  the 
barren  rocks  uncoiling  slowly  in  the  heat  of 
noon. 

He  sat  beneath  the  bo-tree's  contemplative 
shade,  wrapped  in  Buddha's  mighty  thought, 
and  dreamed  all  dreams  that  Light,  the  alche- 
mist, has  wrought  from  dust  and  dew,  and  stored 
within  the  slumbrous  poppy's  subtle  blood. 

He  knelt  with  awe  and  dread  at  every  shrine; 
he  offered  every  sacrifice  and  every  prayer;  felt 
the  consolation  and  the  shuddering  fear ;  mocked 
and  worshiped  all  the  gods;  enjoyed  all  heavens, 
and  felt  the  pangs  of  every  hell. 

He  lived  all  lives,  and  through  his  blood  and 
brain  there  crept  the  shadow  and  the  chill  of 
every  death,  and  the  soul,  like  Mazeppa,  was 
lashed  naked  to  the  wild  horse  of  every  fear  and 
love  and  hate. 

The  imagination  had  a  stage  in  Shakespeare's 
brain,  whereon  were  set  all  scenes  that  lie 
between  the  morn  of  laughter  and  the  night  of 


I  io 


tears,  and  where  his  prayers  bodied  forth  the 
false  and  true,  the  joys  and  griefs,  the  careless 
shallows  and  the  tragic  deeps  of  universal  life. 

From  Shakespeare's  brain  there  poured  a 
Niagara  of  gems  spanned  by  Fancy's  seven-hued 
arch.  He  was  as  many-sided  as  clouds  are  many- 
formed.  To  him  giving  was  hoarding,  sowing 
was  harvest,  and  waste  itself  the  source  of 
wealth.  Within  his  marvelous  mind  were  the 
fruits  of  all  thought  past,  the  seeds  of  all  to  be. 
As  a  drop  of  dew  contains  the  image  of  the 
earth  and  sky,  so  all  there  is  of  life  was  mirrored 
forth  in  Shakespeare's  brain. 

Shakespeare  was  an  intellectual  ocean,  whose 
waves  touched  all  the  shores  of  thought ;  within 
which  were  all  the  tides  and  waves  of  destiny 
and  will;  over  which  swept  all  the  storms  of 
fate,  ambition  and  revenge ;  upon  which  fell  the 
gloom  and  darkness  of  despair  and  death  and  all 
the  sunlight  of  content  and  love,  and  within 
which  was  the  inverted  sky  lit  with  the  eternal 
stars  —  an  intellectual  ocean,  towards  which  all 
rivers  ran,  and  from  which  now  the  isles  and 
continents  of  thought  receive  their  dew  and  rain. 


On 

Shakespeare. 


I  I  I 


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